Series 1 (2010) The first series, comprising seven episodes, explores the lives of the fictional Crawley family, the hereditary
Earl of Grantham, and their domestic servants at the
family estate in
Yorkshire region. The storyline centres on the
fee tail, or "entail", governing the titled elite, which endows title and estate exclusively to
male heirs.
Common recovery had been developed in the fifteenth century as a means of ending an entail. This did not stop the practice and in the seventeenth century lawyers developed
strict settlement as a means of enforcing entail. The
Settled Land Acts 1882 to 1890 finally allowed strict settlements to be broken by agreement with the next heir, except where he was a minor. As part of the backstory, the main character, Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, had resolved his father's past financial difficulties by marrying Cora Levinson, an
American heiress. Her considerable
dowry is now contractually incorporated into the committal entail in perpetuity; however, Robert and Cora have three daughters and no son. As the eldest daughter, Lady Mary Crawley had agreed to marry her second cousin Patrick, the son of the then-
heir presumptive James Crawley. The series begins the day after the
sinking of RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. The first episode starts as news reaches Downton Abbey that both James and Patrick have perished in the sinking of the ocean liner. The family then learns that a more distant and unknown male cousin, solicitor Matthew Crawley, the son of an
upper-middle-class doctor, has become the next heir presumptive. The story initially centres on the relationship between Lady Mary and Matthew, who resists embracing an aristocratic lifestyle, while Lady Mary resists her own attraction to the new heir presumptive. Of several subplots, one involves John Bates, Lord Grantham's new
valet and former
Boer War batman, and Thomas Barrow, an ambitious young
footman, who resents the former for taking a position he had desired for himself. Bates and Thomas remain at odds as Barrow works to sabotage Bates's every move. After learning Bates had recently been released from prison, Thomas and Miss O'Brien (Lady Grantham's
lady's maid) begin a relentless pursuit that nearly ruins the Crawley family in scandal. Barrow – a
closeted homosexual man – and O'Brien create havoc for most of the staff and family. When Barrow is caught stealing, he hands in his
notice to join the
Royal Army Medical Corps. Matthew eventually does propose to Lady Mary, but she puts him off when Lady Grantham becomes pregnant, understanding that Matthew would no longer be heir if the baby is a boy. Cora loses the baby after O'Brien, believing she is soon to be fired, retaliates by leaving a bar of soap on the floor next to the bathtub, causing Cora to slip while getting out of the tub, and the fall resulting in a miscarriage. It is later revealed that the miscarried foetus was a male. Although Lady Mary intends to accept Matthew, Matthew believes her reluctance is due to the earlier uncertainty of his heirship and emotionally rescinds his proposal, leaving Lady Mary devastated. The series ends just after the
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the outbreak of the
First World War in August 1914.
Series 2 (2011) plays Lady Mary Crawley, the eldest Grantham daughter. plays Matthew Crawley. The second series comprises eight episodes and runs from the
Battle of the Somme in 1916 to the
1918 Spanish flu pandemic. During the war, Downton Abbey is temporarily converted into an officers'
convalescent hospital. Matthew, having left Downton, is now a
British Army officer and has become engaged. His fiancée is Lavinia Swire, the niece of a
Liberal minister. William Mason, the second footman, is drafted, even after attempts by the Dowager Countess of Grantham to save him from
conscription. William is taken under Matthew's protection as his personal
orderly. Enduring trench warfare and charging against machine guns and artillery, both are injured by an exploding shell. William dies from his wounds, but only after a deathbed marriage to Daisy, the
scullery maid. While Daisy does not believe she loves William, she marries him in his last hours as his dying wish and is widowed within half an hour of her marriage. It is not until a brief encounter with the Dowager Countess that she begins to realise that her love was real, but she could not admit it to herself. Matthew is now
paralysed from the waist down by his battle injury, and seemingly unable to father children. Lavinia remains true to him despite his attempts to set her free, and he finally accepts her devotion. Mary, while acknowledging her feelings for Matthew, becomes engaged to Sir Richard Carlisle, a powerful and overbearing newspaper mogul who was instrumental in uncovering the
Marconi scandal, but their relationship is rocky. Bates's estranged wife, Vera, repeatedly causes trouble for John and Anna, who are now engaged. Vera threatens to expose Mary's past scandalous indiscretion, but Carlisle agrees to purchase and
kill her story. Embittered, Mrs Bates mysteriously commits suicide with an arsenic pie after a visit by Bates, and he is arrested on suspicion of her murder. Matthew regains the use of his legs, and he and Mary realise they are still in love, but Matthew remains honourably committed to Lavinia after she stood by him during his misfortune. Unknown to them both, Lavinia, ill with
Spanish flu, sees and overhears Matthew and Mary admit their love for one another while dancing to a song playing on the
phonograph given as a wedding present to Matthew and Lavinia. The Spanish influenza epidemic hits Downton Abbey further with Cora taken seriously ill, as well as Carson, the
butler. During the outbreak, Thomas attempts to make up for his inability to find other employment after the war by making himself as useful as possible and is made Lord Grantham's valet after Bates is arrested. Lavinia dies abruptly, which causes great guilt to both Matthew and Mary. Bates is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death but the sentence is
commuted to life in prison due to Lord Grantham's influence. After a talk with Robert, Mary realises that she must break off her engagement to Carlisle; he and Matthew fight in the drawing room, but in the end Carlisle goes quietly and is never heard from again. The annual Servants' Ball is held at Downton, and Mary and Matthew finally find their way to a marriage proposal on a snowy evening outside the Abbey. Lady Sybil, the youngest Crawley daughter, beginning to find her aristocratic life stifling, falls in love with Tom Branson, the new chauffeur of
Irish descent with strong
socialist leanings. She is talked out of
elopement by her sisters, but her wayward marriage eventually receives Lord Grantham's reluctant blessing. Ethel Parks, a new housemaid, is seduced by a wounded officer, Major Bryant. Mrs Hughes, the housekeeper, finds them together in bed and dismisses Ethel, but takes pity on her and helps her when Ethel tells her she is pregnant. She has a baby boy and names him Charlie after his father, but Major Bryant refuses to acknowledge his paternity. The filming location,
Highclere Castle, in reality served as a convalescent home during World War I.
Series 3 (2012) plays Tom Branson, the chauffeur who marries into the Crawley family. In episode one of the third series, covering 1920 to 1921, preparations are underway for Mary and Matthew's wedding. Tom and Sybil Branson arrive from Ireland, where they now live, to attend the wedding. Also arriving to attend the wedding of her granddaughter is Cora's mother, Martha Levinson, from America. Robert learns that the bulk of the family's fortune (including Cora's dowry) has been lost due to his impetuous investment in the
Grand Trunk Railway. Meanwhile Edith has fallen for Sir Anthony Strallan, whom Robert discourages from marrying Edith due to his age and crippled arm. At Edith's insistence, Robert gives in and welcomes Sir Anthony, but even though he loves her, Strallan cannot accept that the Grantham family disapproves of the match, and at the altar announces that he cannot go through with the wedding, devastating Edith. Strallan flees the church and is never heard from again. Meanwhile, Bates's cellmate plants a small surgical knife in his bedding, but Bates is informed by a fellow prisoner allowing him time to find and hide it (this same small knife is later used by Bates to threaten his cellmate when he had been using his connections through corrupt prison guards to keep a witness from testifying to Bates's innocence of the crime for which he is incarcerated). At Downton, Mrs Hughes finds out she may have
breast cancer, which only some of the household hear about, causing deep concern, but the tumour turns out to be
benign. Tom Branson and Lady Sybil, now pregnant, return to Downton after Tom is implicated in the burning of an
Anglo-Irish aristocrat's house during the
Irish War of Independence. After Matthew's reluctance to accept an inheritance from Lavinia's recently deceased father and then Robert's reluctance to accept that inheritance as a gift, Matthew and Robert reach a compromise in which Matthew accepts that the inheritance will be used as an investment in the estate, giving Matthew an equal say in how it is run. However, as time goes on Robert repeatedly resists Matthew and Tom's efforts to modernise the running of the estate to make it profitable. Tragedy strikes when Sybil dies from
eclampsia shortly after giving birth. Tom, devastated, names his daughter Sybil after his late wife. Bates is released from prison after Anna uncovers evidence clearing him of his wife's murder. Tom becomes the new
land agent at the suggestion of Violet, the Dowager Countess. Barrow and O'Brien have a falling out, after which O'Brien leads Barrow to believe that Jimmy, the new footman, is sexually attracted to him. Barrow enters Jimmy's room and kisses him while he is sleeping, which wakes him up shocked, confused, and very angry. In the end, Lord Grantham (familiar with homosexuality from
Eton) defuses the situation. The family, except Branson, visits Violet's niece Susan, her husband "Shrimpie", the
Marquess of Flintshire; and their daughter Rose, in
Scotland, accompanied by Matthew and a very pregnant Mary. The Marquess confides to Robert that his estate is bankrupt and
will be sold, making Robert recognise that Downton has been saved through Matthew and Tom's efforts to modernise. At Downton, Edna Braithwaite, the new maid, enters Tom's room and kisses him, whereupon he asks her to leave, and she is eventually fired. Mary returns to Downton with Anna and gives birth to the new heir, but Matthew dies in a car crash while driving home from the hospital after seeing his newborn son.
Series 4 (2013) In series four, covering 1922 to 1923, O'Brien leaves to serve Lady Flintshire in
Bombay. Cora hires Edna Braithwaite, who had previously been fired for her interest in Tom. Eventually the situation blows up, and Edna is replaced by Phyllis Baxter. Mary deeply mourns Matthew's death. Matthew's newly-found letter states Mary is to be his sole
heir and thus gives her management over his share of the estate until their son, George,
comes of age. With Tom's encouragement, Mary assumes a more active role in running Downton. Two new suitors—Anthony Foyle and Charles Blake—arrive at Downton, though Mary, still grieving, is not interested. Edith has begun writing a weekly newspaper column, and Michael Gregson, a magazine editor, falls in love with her. Due to British law, he is unable to
divorce his wife, who is mentally ill and in an asylum. Gregson travels to
Germany to seek
citizenship there, enabling him to divorce, but suddenly disappears after an altercation with
Hitler's
Brownshirts. Edith is left pregnant and decides to have an illegal abortion, but changes her mind at the last minute. With the help from her paternal aunt, Lady Rosamund, Edith secretly gives birth to a daughter while abroad, and places the baby with adoptive parents in
Switzerland, but reclaims her after arranging a new adoptive family on the estate. Mr and Mrs Drewe of Yew Tree Farm take the baby in and raise her as their own. Anna is raped by Lord Gillingham's valet Mr Green, which Mr Bates later discovers. Subsequently, Green is killed in a London street accident. A local school teacher, Sarah Bunting, and Tom begin a friendship on grounds of their socialist leanings, which puts him at odds with the Crawleys. The downstairs story also involves a
love square between Daisy (now promoted to assistant cook), Ivy (the new kitchen maid) and the two footmen Jimmy and Alfred, which ends up in all parties recognising that they were pursuing the wrong person. At the end, Alfred leaves service at Downton to pursue his desire of becoming a
chef at
the Ritz and Jimmy is sacked for being found in bed with a guest. In the Christmas special set mainly in London, Sampson, a
card sharp, steals a letter written by the future
Edward VIII, then
Prince of Wales, to his mistress, Rose's friend
Freda Dudley Ward, which if made public would create a scandal; the entire Crawley family connives to retrieve it, although it is Bates who extracts the letter from Sampson's overcoat, and it is returned to Mrs Dudley Ward. The family hold a
debutante ball for Lady Rose following her presentation at the royal court, and the grateful Prince makes an appearance at the ball. At the same time, Cora's mother Martha Levinson comes to London with her son Harold, who has been implicated in the
Teapot Dome scandal to visit the Crawleys. At Martha's insistence, Robert travels to the US and testifies on behalf of his brother-in-law before the
US Congress. Ivy leaves Downton to serve Harold as his cook in
New York.
Series 5 (2014) In series five, covering the year 1924, a
Russian exile, Prince Kuragin, wishes to renew his past affections for the Dowager Countess (Violet). Violet instead locates his wife in
British Hong Kong and reunites the Prince and his estranged wife.
Scotland Yard and the local police investigate Green's death. Violet learns that Marigold is Edith's daughter. Meanwhile, Mrs Drewe, not knowing Marigold's true parentage, resents Edith's constant visits. To increase his chances with Mary, Charles Blake plots to reunite Gillingham and his ex-fiancée, Mabel. News of Gregson's death in the
Beer Hall Putsch reaches Downton. After Edith inherits Michael Gregson's publishing company, she removes Marigold from the Drewes and relocates to London. Simon Bricker, an art expert interested in one of Downton's paintings, shows his true intentions toward Cora and is thrown out by Robert, causing a temporary rift between the couple. Mrs Patmore's decision to invest her inheritance in real estate inspires Mr Carson, Downton's butler, to do likewise. He suggests that the housekeeper Mrs Hughes invest with him; she confesses she has no money because she is supporting a mentally incapacitated sister. The Crawleys' cousin, Lady Rose, daughter of Lord and Lady Flintshire, becomes engaged to Atticus Aldridge, son of Lord and Lady Sinderby. Lord Sinderby strongly
objects to Atticus's marrying outside the
Jewish faith. Lord Merton proposes to Isobel Crawley (Matthew's mother). She accepts, but later ends the engagement as a result of Lord Merton's sons'
disparaging comments over her status as a
commoner. Lady Flintshire employs underhanded schemes to derail Rose and Atticus's engagement, including announcing to everyone at the wedding that she and her husband are divorcing, intending to cause a scandal to stop Rose's marriage to Atticus; they are married anyway. When Anna is arrested on suspicion of Green's murder, Bates writes a
false confession before fleeing to
Ireland. Baxter and Molesley, a footman and Matthew's former valet, are able to prove that Bates was in
York at the time of the murder. This new information allows Anna to be released. Cora eventually learns the truth about Marigold, and wants her raised at Downton; Marigold is presented as Edith's
ward, but Robert and Tom eventually discern the truth. Only Mary is unaware. When a war memorial is unveiled in the town, Robert arranges for a separate plaque to honour the cook Mrs Patmore's late nephew, who was shot for
desertion and excluded from his own village's memorial. The Crawleys are invited to Brancaster Castle, which Lord and Lady Sinderby have rented for a shooting party. While there, Lady Rose, with help from the Crawleys, defuses a personal near-disaster for Lord Sinderby, earning his gratitude and securing his approval of Rose. In the aftermath of the results of the
1923 general election, the Crawleys
auction off a
della Francesca painting. From that money, a second footman, Andy, is hired on Barrow's recommendation. During the annual Downton Abbey Christmas celebration, Tom announces he is moving to
Boston to work for his cousin, taking daughter Sybil with him. Mr Carson proposes marriage to Mrs Hughes and she accepts.
Series 6 (2015) as Downton Abbey In series six, changes are once again afoot at Downton Abbey as the
middle class rises and more
bankrupted aristocrats are forced to sell off their large estates. Downton must do more to ensure its future survival;
reductions in staff are considered, forcing Barrow to look for a job elsewhere. Having formed a close bond with young George, Barrow realises that Downton has become the first real home he has ever had, but feels unwanted. Mary defies a blackmailer, who is thwarted by Robert. With Tom's departure to Boston, Mary becomes the
estate agent. Edith is more hands-on in running her magazine and hires a female editor. Violet and Isobel once again draw battle lines as a government take-over of the local
cottage hospital is considered. Mary begins seeing Henry Talbot, a
racing driver, and Edith begins seeing Bertie Pelham, a cousin of the owner of Brancaster Castle. Meanwhile, Anna suffers repeated miscarriages. Mary takes her to a specialist, who diagnoses a
treatable condition, and she becomes pregnant again. Mr Carson and Mrs Hughes disagree on where to hold their wedding reception, but eventually choose to have it at the schoolhouse, during which Tom reappears with Sybil, having returned to Downton for good. Coyle, who tricked Baxter into stealing a previous employer's jewellery, is convicted after she and other witnesses are persuaded to testify. After Mrs Drewe kidnaps Marigold when Edith is not looking, the Drewes vacate Yew Tree Farm; Daisy convinces Tom to ask Robert to give her father-in-law, Mr Mason, the tenancy. Andy offers to help Mr Mason so he can learn about farming, but Andy is held back by his illiteracy. Barrow offers to teach him to read, but Andy soon trades his help for that of a teacher at the local school. Robert suffers a near-fatal health crisis. Previous episodes alluded to health problems for Robert; his
ulcer bursts and he is rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. The operation is successful, but Mary and Tom must take over Downton's operations. Larry Merton's fiancée, Amelia, encourages Lord Merton and Isobel to renew their engagement, but Violet rightly becomes suspicious. Violet discovers that Amelia wants Isobel, and not her, to be Lord Merton's caretaker in his old age. Daisy and Molesley score high marks on their academic exams; Molesley's are so exceptional that he is offered a teaching position at the local school. Mary breaks up with Henry, unable to live with the constant fear he could be killed in an accident like Matthew was. Bertie proposes to Edith, but she hesitates to accept because of Marigold. Violet, upset over Cora replacing her as hospital president, abruptly departs for a long cruise to restore her equanimity. Bertie unexpectedly succeeds his late second cousin as 7th
Marquess of
Hexham and moves into Brancaster Castle; Edith accepts him. Mary spitefully exposes Marigold's parentage, causing Bertie to walk out. Tom confronts Mary over her malicious behaviour and her true feelings for Henry. Despondent over his inability to find another job and his sense of being unloved, Barrow attempts
suicide, and is saved by Baxter and Andy. Realising the extent of Barrow's pain for the first time, Robert and Carson allow Barrow to stay at Downton while he recovers and searches for new employment. Mary and Henry reunite and are married. Edith returns to Downton for the wedding; she and Mary agree to work on improving their relationship. Mrs Patmore's new
bed and breakfast business is tainted by scandal, but saved when Robert, Cora and Rosamund appear there publicly to support her. Mary arranges a surprise meeting for Edith and Bertie with Bertie proposing again. Edith accepts. Edith tells Bertie's moralistic mother Mirada about Marigold; initially appalled, she is won over by Edith's honesty. Barrow, having decided to turn over a new leaf and become a kinder person, finds a position as butler and leaves Downton on good terms, but he is unhappy at his new post; the family and other servants also find themselves missing him. Lord Merton is diagnosed with terminal
pernicious anaemia and Amelia blocks Isobel from seeing him. Goaded by Violet, Isobel pushes into the Merton house and announces she will take Lord Merton to her house to care for and marry him, to his delight. Later, Lord Merton is correctly diagnosed with a non-fatal form of
anaemia. Robert resents Cora's frequent absences as the hospital president, but comes to admire her ability after watching her chair a hospital meeting. Henry and Tom go into business together selling used cars, while Mary announces her pregnancy. Molesley accepts a permanent teaching position and he and Baxter promise to continue seeing each other. Daisy and Andy finally acknowledge their feelings; Daisy decides to move to the farm with Mr Mason, her father-in-law. Carson develops
palsy and must retire. Following Robert and Mary's suggestion, Barrow happily returns to Downton as butler, with Carson in an overseeing role. Edith and Bertie are finally married in the series finale, set on New Year's Eve 1925. Anna goes into labour during the reception, and she and Bates become parents to a healthy son. ==Cast and characters==