The Prisoner of Chillon

On 22 June 1816, Lord Byron and his contemporary and friend Percy Bysshe Shelley were sailing on Lake Geneva (referred to as "Lac Leman", the French name, throughout the poem) and stopped to visit the Château de Chillon.

Because of torrential rainfall, Byron and his companion rested at a hotel in Ouchy following their tour.

The work's themes and images follow those of a typical poem by Lord Byron: the protagonist is an isolated figure, and brings a strong will to bear against great sufferings.

He seeks solace in the beauty of nature (especially in sections ten and thirteen), and is a martyr of sorts to the cause of liberty.

While inspired by the story of Bonivard's imprisonment, the actual details of the story of the poem's protagonist do not fit the actual historical details of Bonivard's life and are rather the romanticized biography of a fictional prisoner.