This is a list of characters from Downton Abbey, a British period drama television series created by Julian Fellowes and co-produced by Carnival Films and Masterpiece for ITV and PBS, respectively.

Unlike the people of his era, Robert has a relaxed attitude towards homosexuality (having experienced it firsthand while studying in Eton), so he does not sack his servant Thomas Barrow or hand him over to the police when he is accused of kissing men.

She experiences multiple disappointments in her romantic relationships: she is jilted at the altar by Sir Anthony Strallan in the third series, and her second fiancé Michael Gregson is killed by Nazis while staying in Germany during the Beer Hall Putsch.

A lawyer by profession, specialising in industrial law and working in a partnership at Ripon, Matthew finds it difficult to reconcile the traditionalist, aristocratic lifestyle of Downton with his middle-class upbringing at Manchester, but he is eventually accepted into the family and becomes something of a surrogate son to Lord Grantham.

After a financial scare caused by the market collapse of the Grand Trunk Railway stocks (into which Robert had invested Cora's fortune), Matthew becomes a co-owner of the estate, and begins working on plans to modernise it with the new land agent, his brother-in-law Tom Branson.

[9] Tom Branson plays a major role in the first feature film, saving the king's life and courting Lucy Smith, who is the daughter of Lady Maud Bagshaw, lady-in-waiting to Queen Mary and a cousin of the Crawleys.

He, Lucy and members of the Crawley family travel to the south of France, after discovering that the Dowager Countess was gifted a villa there, and arranges for her great-granddaughter, Tom's daughter Sybbie Branson, to inherit it.

His peripheral involvement in the Teapot Dome scandal leads Martha to request that Lord Grantham appear before Congress to vouch for Harold's character late in series four – he escapes with only a reprimand.

When news reaches the Crawleys confirming Michael Gregson's tragic death, Lady Edith tells a terribly distraught Mrs Drewe the truth, reclaims her daughter, and flees to London.

Hugh MacClare, Marquess of Flintshire (played by Peter Egan), is a Scottish nobleman[a] nicknamed "Shrimpie" and married to Susan, the niece of Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham.

In the second series, with most of the male staff depicted as serving in the First World War, Mr Carson finds himself under mostly self-imposed pressure to ensure household duties are carried out to his exacting standards.

In 1913, three years after Ivy dies and his son joins the army, Joe comes to Downton and asks Elsie to marry him, but once again she refuses him, even though she has previously expressed doubts about choosing a life of service over having a husband and family.

Outwardly prim and somewhat strict in her manner as housekeeper, Mrs Hughes is essentially kindly and generous, as shown when she assists Ethel (whom she sacked on spot for having sex in her room with one of the recovering soldiers from the convalescent home) has a baby out of wedlock.

And while the household is lined up to receive a duke, O'Brien discreetly kicks Bates's cane on which he was leaning, knocking him on his face in the gravel, in order to cause a scene and bring attention to his disability.

Matters become worse when Anna assists Lady Mary in procuring contraception for her extramarital relationship with Lord Gillingham, and Bates finds the evidence and mistakenly believes his wife is using it so she does not become pregnant with a murderer's child.

However, having bought the train ticket to London in York, he decided not to go through with the plan at the last minute, as he considered his actions would do far more harm than good, since he would certainly have been hanged for the crime if convicted; his love for his wife proved greater than his desire to defend her honour.

In the third episode of the fourth series, Anna is violently assaulted and raped by Lord Gillingham's valet while the rest of family members and staff are attending a concert above stairs in the house.

After the headmaster of the local school takes over Andy's education, he sinks into depression and attempts to commit suicide but is rescued by Baxter and decides to work harder on becoming a better person to rebuild his life.

Towards the end of the second series, she becomes guilt-ridden when she finds out her meddling in Bates's private life has started a chain reaction which led to Vera's threatening to expose the Kemal Pamuk affair and bring the Crawley family into disrepute.

Similar to Carson, Mrs Patmore is also reluctant to accept the advent of new technology like mixers, toasters and refrigerators in the kitchen and described the sound of the ringing telephone as 'cries of a banshee', but she is enthusiastic about modern fashion and orders new clothing via mail.

After the fire, Lord Grantham (scandalised at the action of a footman being physically intimate with an upper-class guest) tells Carson to sack Jimmy, but with a good reference, in order to keep his mouth shut.

After Matthew dies in a car accident Molesley loses his job, moves in with his father and struggles to find work as a servant, forced to be a road construction worker and delivery boy.

While Barrow is away in America with Lord Grantham (as John Bates asked to be excused from the trip to remain with his wife), Baxter grows closer to Joseph Molesley, who treats her with respect.

Denker even started a rumour that the Crawley family was going to reduce the number of staff owing to economic hardships, making Barrow and Spratt anxious about their job security.

Patrick Gordon (played by Trevor White) is a major in the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry who made a request to stay at the convalescent home at Downton Abbey because he claims he is related to the Crawley family.

The brusque, domineering and nouveau riche Carlisle is a self-made, extremely wealthy newspaper magnate from Edinburgh whose paper, with the help of Lavinia Swire, was instrumental in breaking the Marconi scandal story.

Although he says his feelings for her are sincere, and he offers to buy a stately home near Downton where they can live together and start a family, he demands near-total control and threatens that if she leaves him he will expose her liaison with Kemal Pamuk, which he has covered up from exposure.

As a powerful and extremely wealthy noble with palaces and thousands of acres of land, he and Violet met in Saint Petersburg in 1874 while she and her husband, the then Earl of Grantham, were in the retinue of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh who had come to marry the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna.

[24] The Prince of Wales (Oliver Dimsdale), the future King Edward VIII, is also present at Rose's debutante ball, and his affair with the married Freda Dudley Ward is the centre of Sampson's blackmail plot.

The intended dinner conversation quickly becomes a heated argument in front of the bemused minister, and the Earl of Grantham collapses from a perforated ulcer, ending the gathering while he is rushed to hospital.