Mary Talbot

Lady Mary Josephine Crawley
Biographical information
Born	1892
Marital status	Engaged to Matthew Crawley
Residence	Downton, Yorkshire
Title(s)	Lady Milady
Physical information
Gender	Female
Family information
Family	Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham (father) Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham (mother) Lady Edith Crawley (sister) Lady Sybil Branson nee Crawley (sister) Unnamed brother (deceased) Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham (grandmother) Patrick Crawley, 5th Earl of Grantham (grandfather) † Isidore Levinson (maternal grandfather) † Martha Levinson (maternal grandmother) Lady Rosamund Painswick (aunt) Marmaduke Painswick (uncle) † Matthew Crawley (fourth cousin/fiancé) Tom Branson (brother-in-law) Isobel Crawley (third cousin once removed/future mother-in-law) Sybil's unborn child (nephew or niece)
Affiliation
Loyalty	Crawley family Anna
Behind the scenes
Portrayed by	Michelle Dockery

Lady Mary Josephine Crawley (Born 1892) is the eldest of Lord and Lady Grantham's three daughters. Sister of Ladies Edith and Sybil, sister-in-law of Tom Branson, future daughter-in-law of Isobel Crawley and fiancée of Matthew Crawley. She is feisty and is quite shallow and mean at times, but she cares greatly for her family and friends; even their servants. Mary is used to getting all the attention, especially from men as her parents are trying to marry her off.

Character

Lady Mary is portrayed by Michelle Dockery. Mary is slightly snobbish, though she is kind to the servants, especially Anna, who helps Mary and her sisters dress and protected Mary's secret about Pamuk, and Mr. Carson, who acted as a father figure to her. She is calm, cool, and collected even when she is frustrated or depressed, and understands the way things work as well as the differences of social rank. She is fond of her sister Sybil, but appears to despise her other sister Edith, though their rivalry seems to die down in the second season. Mary also becomes all together more likeable in the second season, showing more compassion to her sisters and Matthew Crawley, especially regarding his engagement to Lavinia Swire.

Relationships

Patrick Crawley

As a woman, Lady Mary cannot inherit her father's earldom in her own right (that is, inherit the title after his death). As the eldest child of the family, she might have been able to inherit Downton Abbey and the money associated with it, but the estate was entailed to the title by her grandfather at the time of Robert's marriage to the American heiress Cora Levinson, Mary's mother. As a result, the next male heir in the line gets the title, the estate, and Cora's money, which cannot be separated one from another by law. First in line to inherit was Mr James Crawley (Robert Crawley's cousin), followed by his son Patrick (Robert's first cousin once removed). In order for Mary to retain the family's wealth and eventually become mistress of Downton, she had been prepared to marry Patrick and the families had secretly considered an engagement between the two, but in April 1912 both heirs drowned on the R.M.S. Titanic. It is obvious that Mary, who has a pronounced independent streak, did not love Patrick in a romantic way. She tells Sybil that what makes her truly sad is that she is not sad enough about Patrick's death, and bemoans the fact she has to wear black in mourning for him.

Duke of Crowborough

Believing Mary will inherit the estate after James and Patrick's deaths, he organises a visit to Downton in order to court her. She is at first bewildered and then intrigued when he convinces her to explore the servant quarters, an area of the house in which the family would have rarely ventured. They enter footman Thomas's room, where the Duke rummages through the drawers. Mary is uncomfortable about this and is apologetic when they are caught by Bates. The reason for this visit to Thomas' room was that the Duke had had an affair with him once in London and was looking for the love letters he had written so that Thomas could not blackmail him now that he knows Mary is not to inherit Downton.

Kemal Pamuk

Evelyn Napier, a family friend, visits Downton accompanied by a Turkish diplomat Kemal Pamuk, a young man so strikingly handsome that even the earl remarks upon it. Pamuk immediately lusts after Mary, a feeling she reciprocates. Later he blackmails Thomas Barrow, who has mistakingly made an advance, into showing him where her room is so that he will know where to go that night. Even though Mary resists his early advances, she is nonetheless seduced by him when he enters her bedchambers. He assures her she will remain ostensibly a virgin for her husband, and she submits. Later that night, Mary wakes up head housemaid Anna Smith to report that Pamuk suffered a heart attack and died in her arms. Together, with the help of her mother Cora Crawley, they carry him to his own room, in the distant bachelor's corridor, so that he may be discovered the next day dead in his own bed and not in Mary's.

This scandal will haunt Mary for the rest of her life, should it ever seep to the public. However John Bates' first wife, Vera Bates is aware of Lady Mary and Kemal Pamuk's story and has threatened that she will go to the newspapers with the story. Lady Mary informs newspaper editor, and future fiance, Sir Richard Carlisle, of her indiscretion, Vera Bates and Vera's threat to make the story public. Sir Richard buys the legal rights to the story from Vera Bates and keeps the story out of the newspapers.. After Lady Mary's father notices that his daughter is unhappy, Cora tell him everything about Kemal,. Lord Grantham tells his daughter to call off her engagement with Sir Richard, and he will support her if and when the story is made public. After her engagement is called off, Sir Richard tells Lady Mary he will feel no regret when he exposes the scandal which may bring ruin upon Lady Mary and her family.

Matthew Crawley

Series 1

Mary and Matthew are fourth cousins. When they first meet, he is enamored by her but she mocks him and instantly dislikes him. While she ridiculed him whenever possible, he appears quite smitten with her, despite her often harsh words. As time passed, the more time they spent together the fonder she grew of him. Mary, despite originally intending to hate him for 'usurping' her inheritance, was soon drawn to his mild manners and sharp wit. Mary’s jealously is stirred when Lady Sybil shows signs of a crush towards Matthew and that evening Mary warns him and they end up kissing. Mary admits that she loved Matthew for longer than she knew and plans on accepting his marriage proposal, until she learns of her mother’s pregnancy and Lady Rosamund convinces her not to give an answer until the baby is born in case it is a boy and Matthew is no longer the heir. She also feels guilty about the Pamuk affair, and that she needs to tell Matthew about this before accepting him. This hesitation leads to Matthew withdrawing his proposal, leaving Mary devastated and they barely speak for two years.

Matthew and Mary dancing at the servant's ball during the 2011 Christmas Special.

Series 2

When they meet in 1916 she learns of his recent engagement to Lavinia Swire. Heartbroken, she cries and is comforted by Anna showing that she is still in love with Matthew despite pretending to have moved on in front of everyone else. This unrequited love continues throughout the series until Episode 2.08 when it is revealed that Matthew still has feelings for her, but is bound by duty to Lavinia, who is sick with Spanish flu. She sees them kissing but tells Matthew that he should be with Mary, not her. When she dies, Matthew believes she died of a broken heart and that he and Mary are to blame.

2011 Christmas Special

Mary and Matthew finally agreeing to marry each other in the 2011 Christmas Special

During the Christmas and New Year celebrations, Mary and Matthew become closer, but Mary's fiance Sir Richard Carlisle, looms as a threat. Mary is very unhappy with Sir Richard and grows to dislike him. Matthew presses her for an explanation for her continued engagement in light of this distaste. When she breaks off the engagement with the permission and support of her father Lord Grantham, she decides to weather the storm of scandal caused by her one-night stand with Mr Kemal Pamuk and go to America to wait it out. Although Matthew was shocked and stunned, he still loves her and he told Mary that he never would and never could despise her, and her history with Mr Kemal Pamuk will never come between them in their present and future life together. Matthew proposes to her and she happily accepts.

Sir Richard Carlisle

To prove to her family and to Matthew that she has moved on, Mary encourages the advances of a very wealthly tabloid owner. When Mary is sufficiently convinced that Matthew is no longer in love with her, she makes the decision to marry Sir Richard. Mary tells Sir Richard everything about her brief relationship with Kemal Pamuk in order to protect her and her family, because Mr Bates first wife Vera Bates has threatened that she will go to the newspapers about the story. Sir Richard bought the legal rights to Vera Bates story, and to stop the story to be publish to all newspapers, Mary thinks she will forever be in his debt. However, Lord Grantham notices Lady Mary's unhappiness with Sir Richard and asks his wife, Cora, whether there is something he ought to know and Cora tells him about Mr. Pamuk. Lord Grantham approaches Mary and gives her his full support and permission for breakng off the engagement and weathering the potential scandalous storm. Mary then breaks the news to Carlisle who threatens her with ruin and insults Matthew. Matthew and Sir Richard come to blows and Sir Richard decides to leave the next day. But, Mary is waiting for him and she tells him that she feels partly responsible and apologizes for using him. Sir Richard tells her that he loved her more than she knows, but still won't feel obligated to hold back the scandal from the papers.

Quotes

File:Candle downton.jpg

Lady Mary Crawley

Series 1

• "When you laugh with me or flirt with me, is that a duty? Are you conforming to the fitness of things?" - to Matthew in episode Six
• "Would you have stayed if I accepted you?" - to Matthew in response to his proposal withdrawal, Episode Seven
• "So I've ruined everything." - to Matthew after confirmation that he won't be staying at Downton.

Series 2

• "I wanted to give you this. It's my lucky charm. I've had it always, so you must promise to bring it back, without a scratch." - to Matthew as he departs for war.
• "'Goodbye then. And such good luck!" - to Matthew as he departs for war.
• "Dear Lord, I don't pretend to have much credit with you. I'm not even sure that you're there. But if you are, and if I've ever done anything good, I beg you to keep him safe." - Mary praying for Matthew at war.

File:Tumblr lbn9713GZu1qzks1vo1 1280 large.jpg

• "The truth is we're very much alike, so naturally I think she's perfect." - to Matthew when asked her opinion on Lavinia
• '"Well there you are then. One day you'll meet someone else and you'll marry. Perhaps it'll be second best, but it doesn't mean you can't have a life." - Mary to Anna while considering marrying Sir Richard.
• "You sound as if you were going to gobble her up." - to Violet about Lavinia.
• "No names, no pack drill." - to Matthew about the private war between Isobel and Cora.
• "Why must she be so savage? It's my broken heart and it was her advice that wrecked it in the first place." - to Violet about Rosamund as they plot to exploit Lavinia.
• "Poor Matthew. What must he do to persuade you that he's in love with Lavinia? Open his chest and carve her name on his heart?" - to Lord Grantham in response to his protests against her marrying Sir Richard.
• Don't be ridiculous.

Behind the scenes

• Lady Mary Crawley is played by actress Michelle Dockery.

External links

• Lady Mary Crawley at the Internet Movie Database