On 28 Jul 1814 Shelley ran away with Mary to Europe and they took Mary's stepsister Claire with them. In September 1814 they went back to England. In 1815 Shelley's grandfather Sir Bysshe died and he agreed on a yearly allowance with Sir Timothy, who still did not want to have anything to do with his son.

In 1816 Shelley, Mary and Claire went abroad again, this time to Geneva. Claire was carrying Lord Byron's child and Byron was in Switserland too after his disastrous marriage had ended in scandal. Byron and Shelley soon became friends and their conversations were very stimulating according to Mary who was a 'devote but silent listener'. In 1816 Shelley and Mary returned to England. After a reconciliation with William Godwin they married on 30 Dec 1816.

In 1817 Shelley's "The Revolt of Islam" was published and in 1818 he went to Italy with Mary, their children and Claire. They lived in Rome and Florence and Shelley continued to write poetry: "Cenci" and "Prometheus Unbound" we both publiushed in 1820. In 1821 the Shelleys lived in Pisa, where they befriended Jane and Edward Williams. Shelley wrote "Epipsychidion" for Emilia Viviani, a girl he was infatuated with.

Allthough Shelley couldn't swim, he and Williams had built a boat they called "Ariel" and on 8 Jul 1822 they didn't return from a sailing trip. Ten days later their bodies were found and buried on the beach. Afterwards the bodies were cremated and Shelley's ashes were eventually transferred to the Protestant Cemetery in Rome in 1823.

In 1824 Mary edited and published "Shelley's Posthumous Poems", but after Sir Timothy threatened to stop the allowance for her son Percy Florence (1819-1889) the volume had to be withdrawn. Lord Byron, who died only two years after Shelley, was a very famous man during his life. Shelley, in sharp contradiction to Byron, was hardly known to the public. After his