History WMG / DowntonAbbey

* [[Spoiler: Jossed. Unless he got some offsreen while on the boat to America.]]

* Doesn't work. the laws of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primogeniture primogeniture]] mean that Mary's son scopes the loot regardless of Matthew dying before he received his inheritance. A similar problem cropped up at the beginning of S3 when Matthew was up to inherit Mr Swire money.

* Doesn't work. the laws of primogeniture [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primogeniture]] mean that Mary's son scopes the loot regardless of Matthew dying before he received his inheritance. A similar problem cropped up at the beginning of S3 when Matthew was up to inherit Mr Swire money.

Matthew may have been the next heir, but he died before the title and property passed to him. If there is another adult male heir who was just as close a relation to the Earl as Matthew was, but a little bit younger or otherwise put behind him in the succession, they may still be ahead of the one-generation-further-removed baby. Of course, once entails are outlawed in 1925, Mary will be declared the heir instead, but they won't be able to resist milking the succession issues one more time for everyone who hasn't looked up entails....

Rose likes Jazz music and is a modern flapper, so its easy to see her hooking up with the (Black) Gary. One of the pictures for season 4 shows them [[OldFashionedRowboatDate rowing a boat together.]]

* Also, another episode or series of episodes around 1933 will involve a German Jew claiming to be Cora's cousin on her father's side[[note]]Isidore Levinson is almost certainly a German Jew, given his name and time period; "Levinson" is a characteristically Ashkenazi name, and the Polish and Russian Jews didn't start arriving in the US until the 1880s, while the major influx of German Jews came in the 1840s-70s, as a result of the anti-Semitic reaction after the Revolutions of 1848[[/note]] trying to escape to Britain.

Because God knows the poor man's been disappointed so many times over the course of the entire show.

Why? Because that's when the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Property_Act_1925 Law of Property Act 1925]] was passed, ''abolishing'' entail entirely.[[note]]That is to say: if Robert had lived to see 1 January 1926 (fairly certain) and Mary hadn't married Matthew and Matthew hadn't died, Matthew would have inherited the title and nothing else. Robert would have been free to leave Downton and the fortune to Mary or whomever else he pleased.[[/note]] This will be a moment for fantastically awkward (and very ''Downton'') humour as everyone looks at the perfectly-healthy Robert and remembers how they had been in a tizzy for ''eight years'' about something that, as it turned out, was completely irrelevant.

Why? Because that's when the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Property_Act_1925 Law of Property Act 1925]] was passed, ''abolishing'' entail entirely.[[note]]That is to say: if Robert had lived to see 1 January 1926 (fairly certain) and Mary hadn't married Matthew and Matthew hadn't died, Matthew would have inherited the title and nothing else. Robert would have been free to leave Downton and Cora's fortune to Mary or whomever else he pleased.[[/note]] This will be a moment for fantastically awkward (and very ''Downton'') humour as everyone looks at the perfectly-healthy Robert and remembers how they had been in a tizzy for ''eight years'' about something that, as it turned out, was completely irrelevant.

Both TV shows match each other to the year and if the Earl and his money mismanagement let to the temporary loss of Downton sometime after WWI (Which no one in the Crawley family speaks of out of shame) to the Basset family who had the place renamed to Totleigh Towers then we have a perfectly reasonable explanation for why Bertie Wooster is seen puttering about Downton Abbey.

Both TV shows match each other to the year and if the Earl and his money mismanagement let to the temporary loss of Downton to the Basset family who had the place renamed to Totleigh Towers (Which no one in the Crawley family speaks of out of shame) then we have a perfectly reasonable explanation for why Bertie Wooster is seen puttering about Downton Abbey.

[[WMG: The show's universe is in no way possible connected to that of [[Series/JeevesAndWooster Jeeves and Wooster]]]]
Both TV shows crossover each other to the year and location and unless the Crawley's lost ownership of Downton somewhere in Season 2 to the Basset family who had the place renamed to Totleigh Towers and then the GrandUnifiedTimeline shall have to find itself incompatible. Then again the Earl isn't that great with money, that might actually work with the multitude of time gaps.

Both TV shows crossover each other to the year and location and unless the Crawley's lost ownership of Downton for a few days somewhere in Season 2 then the GrandUnifiedTimeline shall have to find itself incompatible.

Clearly... Mary is a succubus or some sort of demon.

Think about it. When the show starts Mary is a spoiled and self-centered brat but over the 3 seasons she grew more and more mature. And now, with the [[spoiler: death of Matthew]] she will have to grow more mature to handle the changing world.

Not only does Sophie McShera bear a striking resemblence to Carla Gallo, the two characters seem to share a lot of the same [[Genki Girl]] personality traits, although they are much more repressed in the humble, "simple minded girl" role of subserviant Daisy Robinson.

With [[spoiler: Rose moving to Downton]] next series, all the Sybil-Rose parallels and hints of Tom [[spoiler: possibly finding someone to help him cope with his loss]], it's not unlikely that this will happen. While Rose is a lot less mature than Sybil ever was, we'll probably see her shed her naivety and whatnot next series.

[[WMG: [[spoiler: Branson and Rose]] will get together]] ]]

[[WMG: [[spoiler: Branson and Rose]] will get together]]]]

[[WMG: [[spoiler: Branson and Rose]] will get together]]

Let's face it, the whole idea of Mary going to America to "find a cowboy in the Middle West to shake [them] up a bit," as Robert put it, was a case of TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot - even if that aspect was ignored over the joy of seeing [[spoiler: Mary and Matthew FINALLY get together]]. Now that [[spoiler: Matthew is dead]], the family may decide to have Mary go to America anyway [[spoiler: to grieve in peace, and to find someone else]]. It certainly makes a lot more sense than [[spoiler: traditional, haughty Mary hooking up with rebellious, common-born Tom]], much as they may make sense in other respects.

** Unlikely, because while Mary is as headstrong as Sybil, she doesn't have the disdain for tradition her younger sister had; she prizes social connections and prestige. She's unlikely to get along with someone who would like to destroy all that.

Let's face it, the whole idea of Mary going to America to "find a cowboy in the Middle West to shake [them] up a bit," as Robert put it, was a case of TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot - even if that aspect was ignored over the joy of seeing [[spoiler: Mary and Matthew FINALLY get together]]. Now that [[spoiler: Matthew is dead]], the family may decide to have Mary go to America anyway [[spoiler: to grieve in peace, and to find someone else]]. It certainly makes a lot more sense than [[spoiler : traditional, haughty Mary hooking up with rebellious, common-born Tom]], much as they may make sense in other respects.

[[spoiler: He's just lost his wife, she's just lost her husband. Both their children are close enough in age to be brought up together. With Matthew's death, the next heir to Downton becomes his newborn son, so Robert doesn't have to go shaking the family tree for any distant cousins to marry his daughter to preserve the Grantham line. Plus, the Christmas Special made much of the fact that both Tom and Mary don't really have people who truly understand them, save for their significant others. They can bond over their perceived distance from the rest of the family, their grief, their children. Whether it will end with them being happy together permanently is a different story, but them hooking up initially? That's going to happen.]]

With the house taken over by the government for the duration (and perhaps decades longer), and a DistantFinale showing it presently under National Trust administration with the Crawley descendants scattered throughout the world.