The Right Honourable Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham



Robert Crawley (played by Hugh Bonneville) is the son of Violet Crawley, brother of Lady Rosamund Painswick, husband to Cora Crawley and father to Mary, Edith and Sybil Crawley. As he has no sons, Robert's heir was his cousin, James Crawley, and after James his son, Patrick, until their deaths in the sinking of the Titanic. Robert married his American wife Cora in 1888, largely for her money (in order to save the estate), yet over time fell in love with her, and went on to have three daughters.

The Earl served in the Second Boer War from 1899–1902 where John Bates, later to be his valet, was his batman. He is immensely proud of Downton as the place he grew up and takes his responsibility for the estate very seriously. Although he loves his three daughters, he has always wanted a son to be his heir and nearly gets one until his wife's rather late-in-life fourth pregnancy ends in a miscarriage, with the help of O'Brien. For a short time, it seems that he will have an affair with one of his housemaids, although after a few kisses she thinks it best to leave his service. Out of regard, kindness, and perhaps some guilt, he agrees to write a recommendation for her intelligent son to be admitted to Ripon Grammar School.

Although in some ways traditional, the earl does not shun progress as he allows two telephones and electricty to be installed at Downton and, though with dismay and some reluctance, gave his blessing to his daughter Sybil's marriage to family chauffeur Branson. He is warmhearted and compassionate, not particularly judgmental, and becomes extremely angry when some women from the village enter a concert given at the Abbey for wounded soldiers and hand out white feathers to those who have not enlisted. He demands that they leave his house.