Percy Bysshe Shelley was born into an upper class family at Field Place nearby Horsham in Sussex on August 4, 1792. He was the eldest son in the family. His father, Sir Timothy Shelley was a land owner and a participant in Parliament. Percy's friends addressed him as "Mad Shelley" due to his bizarre behavior. He was sent to Syon House Academy and Eton College. He wanted to transfer to Oxford and joined the Oxford University College in 1810.

His father, Sir Timothy Shelley was in Parliament, and supported Catholic Emancipation. Everybody thought that he would take his father's position when he was twenty-one. He hated monarch however, and he distributed a booklet called The Necessity of Atheism which caused him to be dismissed after six months at Oxford. He didn't really have any money problems until he refused to stop issuing booklets, and to proclaim himself Christian. His father prohibited...