Brocket Hall is a country house in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. In 1812, it was the setting for a scandal that shocked Britain.

In 1553, Brocket Hall was home to Sir John Brocket, a wealthy spice importer and captain of Elizabeth I’s personal guard.

Sir Matthew Lamb purchased the estate in 1746, and in 1760 built the hall as it is seen today.

The hall was inherited by Matthew’s son, Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne, who was often visited at Brocket Hall by the Prince Regent.

The next owner was William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. William’s wife, Lady Caroline, infamously had an affair with Romantic poet Lord Byron, causing Lord Melbourne much embarrassment.

Byron and Caroline’s affair lasted from March to August, 1812. On their first meeting, though she admired his work, Caroline determinedly ignored the poet. She subsequently gave Byron his lasting epitaph when she described him as ‘mad, bad, and dangerous to know’.

Byron, however, loved to pursue women. Giving the excuse of her high social status as a niece of the Duchess of Devonshire, Byron frequently visited Caroline.

Though they continued to publicly denounce each other, over the following months they privately pledged their love.

Byron even suggested that they flee England together, but Caroline would not leave her husband.

Byron was possessive and, though he loved to pursue women, he quickly grew bored of them. He was also angered when Caroline refused to admit that she loved him more than her husband.

After Byron ended the relationship, William took his disgraced wife to Ireland. Caroline was miserable and still in love with the poet; a matter not helped by the fact that she continued to exchange letters with Byron during her exile.

Caroline returned to London in 1813. When Byron made it clear he had no intention of restarting their relationship, Caroline resorted to increasingly public attempts to reunite with her former lover.

When she learned that Byron had begun another affair, this time with the Countess of Oxford, Caroline held a bonfire in the grounds of Brocket Hall and burned Byron’s letters and the tokens of affection he had given her. She even burned an effigy of Byron.

Matters came to a head at Lady Heathcote’s ball in early July, 1813, when Byron publicly insulted Caroline. She responded by breaking a wine glass and trying to cut her wrists. Due to the rapid intervention of her mother-in-law, Caroline did not seriously injure herself. Aristocratic society was scandalised, and Caroline’s mental state was called into question.

The scandal was the talk of Britain. The rumours were further inflamed when Caroline published a gothic novel in 1816, Glenarvon, which portrayed both her marriage to William and her affair with Byron in lurid fashion. Her spiteful caricatures of leading society figures made the Lambs several influential enemies.

In 1824, as Caroline was leaving Brocket Park, she saw a funeral procession passing by. When she asked whose it was, she was told it was Byron’s.

His body had been brought from Greece, where he died of a fever. According to some sources, his heart remained in Greece, while his other remains were sent to England for burial in Westminster Abbey, but the Abbey refused for reason of ‘questionable morality’.

Caroline did not live for much longer. She wrote two more novels and separated from her husband in 1825. Despite this, she and William remained close and he was at her bedside when she died in 1828.

After the death of his wife, William devoted his life to politics. He became Queen Victoria’s first Prime Minister from 1835-41 and acted as a tutor to the young queen. He spent four to five hours a day visiting Victoria and writing to her, helping to instruct her in leading her country. Victoria was quoted as saying she considered him like a father.

William never married again, but was later involved in a second sex scandal.

This time he was the victim of attempted blackmail from the husband of a close friend, author Caroline Norton. Norton’s husband demanded £1,400 from William, and when he was turned down he accused William of having an affair with his wife.

At this time, such a scandal would be enough to derail the career of a major politician, but William was so highly respected by his contemporaries that his government did not fall.

After Norton’s case failed in court, William was vindicated.

Brocket Hall passed through generations of William’s family until, in 1923, the estate was put up for sale. It was purchased by Sir Charles Nall-Cain who co-ran the brewing company Walker Cain Ltd. He was created Baron Brocket in 1933.

During the Second World War, Brocket Hall served as a maternity hospital.

In the late twentieth century, the third Baron Brocket, during his two and a half years in prison for insurance fraud, let the whole estate for a minimum of 60 years to the Club Corporation of Asia.

The company converted Brocket Hall into a hotel and conference centre, and it continues in this use today.