John Milton was born in London, England (1608), to Sarah Jeffrey and her father, also named John. His mother was the daughter of a merchant seaman. His father was a legal writer and also composed music. He inherited a love for art and music from his father. At the age of twelve he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, where he wrote much religious poetry in Latin, Italian and English. Milton was often bullied at university and was expelled after starting a fight with his tutor. After that, he spent six years with his father, spending his days writing. During these six years, he wrote: L'ALLEGRO, IL PENSEROSO (1632), COMUS (1634) and LYCIDAS (1637). In 1635 John Milton and his family moved to Horton, Buckinghamshire, where he continued his studies of Greek, Latin and Italian. He traveled to France and Italy in the late 1630s, meeting the theologian Hugo Grotius in Paris, France, and the astronomer Galileo Galilei in Florence, Italy. Milton returned to London in 1639, where he established a school for his nephews. He did not write much, as he was silenced by the civil war for twenty long years. Milton was concerned with the Puritan cause, so during the Civil War he wrote a series of pamphlets against episcopacy (1642), on divorce (1643). , for the defense of freedom of the press (1644), and in support of regicides (1649). After the death of King Charles, Milton published THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES (1649), supporting the idea that citizens had the right to overthrow and punish tyrants. In 1951 he faced several unpleasant events. He lost his sight for a while, but even after that he was put on trial for his controversial writings and political views. After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Milton was arrested as a recognized defender of the Commonwealth, but was soon released. Milton paid a massive fine for his opposition. Besides the public burning of his works EIKONKLASTES (1649) and the first DEFENSIO (1651) in Paris and Toulouse, Milton escaped further sanctions after the Restoration, but he lost much of his money and became a reasonably poor man, even though Paradise Lost sold over 1,800 copies.