Second Husband Cast

[Glynis Waughtal]

LadyMary Josephine[2] Talbot (ne Crawley; b. 1891),[3][1] known mostly as Lady Mary for most of Downton Abbey, is the eldest daughter of Robert the Earl of Grantham and Cora Crawley, the Countess of Grantham she is the sister of Lady Edith Pelham and the late Lady Sybil Branson, granddaughter of Violet Crawley, sister-in-law of Tom Branson and Herbert (Bertie) Pelham, and the aunt to her nieces, Sybbie Branson and Edith's daughter, Marigold (last name undetermined). She was married to Matthew Crawley and with him had a son, George Crawley, in 1921. Shortly after their son's birth, Matthew was killed in a car accident. Mary married Henry Talbot in 1925, and they have a daughter, Caroline Talbot, in 1926.

Her father's sister Lady Rosamund Painswick and her deceased husband Marmaduke Painswick are Mary's aunt and uncle. She also has an uncle on her mother's side, Harold Levinson. She is second cousins with Lady Rose Aldridge, along with her sisters Lady Annabelle and James MacClare, Earl of Newtonmore. She has a second cousin-in-law in Rose's husband Atticus Aldridge, and their daughter Victoria Aldridge is her second cousin-once-removed. Rose's mother, the Marchioness of Flintshire, is her father's first cousin.

The news of the deaths of her two cousins, James and Patrick, is a shock to her because it disrupts the family's strategy for dealing with the entail. The entail requires that the family's estate, incorporating her mother's large marriage dowry, along with the title, pass to male heirs only. The family had arranged that Mary would marry Patrick, second in line to the title after James, but Mary did not have strong feelings for him and questions whether she must even wear black mourning clothes since the engagement was never publicly announced.

Mary's parents and grandmother focus on finding suitors for Mary, including the Duke of Crowborough, Evelyn Napier, and Anthony Strallan. She herself is seduced by a visitor to the house, Napier's friend Ottoman attach Kemal Pamuk, who suddenly dies in her bed. Her infuriated mother and head housemaid Anna help her carry his body out of her bedroom and back to his room in the bachelor's corridor in order to try to prevent a public scandal that would ruin her marriage prospects.

While Matthew is away at war, Mary becomes engaged to Richard Carlisle, a wealthy newspaper magnate who, after Mary's confession and request for his assistance because someone threatens to expose it, promises to help keep the Pamuk affair under wraps. They plan to marry in July 1919, after the marriage of Matthew and his new fiance Lavinia Swire, and to move to a neighboring, stately home that Sir Richard plans to buy. After Lavinia's death, it becomes clear that Matthew and Mary continue to have strong feelings for one other.

The couple, after a brief moment of doubt the night before the wedding, happily marry in 1920 and go to France for their honeymoon. The doubt came after Mary learned from her father he had lost so much money he was going to lose Downton, and that Matthew might be the heir to Reggie Swire's huge fortune. Mary felt if he inherited, then Downton could be saved, but Matthew insisted he could not inherit it because he still blamed himself for Lavinia's death. When it came to light Lavinia wrote to her father telling him the whole story and that Reggie respected him still, Matthew refused to believe it, so Mary questioned the servants and learned Lavinia had indeed written to her father (Daisy Mason had posted the letter). Matthew then accepted it, investing in Downton and saving it.

After Sybil and her husband, former chauffeur Tom Branson, were exiled from Ireland, they returned to Downton Abbey where Sybil went into labor. Mary visited her beforehand, where Sybil mentioned again Tom's wish for the baby to be Catholic like himself and how she realized the baby's christening would now have to take place at Downton, instead of Dublin. Mary insisted to Sybil she did not have to accept this, as it was her baby too. But Sybil told her she did not mind, that she did not object to Catholic traditions, and that she loved Tom and wanted this for him. Mary then promised to fight their corner. Like the rest of the family, Mary was delighted at the birth of Sybil's daughter, then utterly heartbroken when her beloved sister died soon after. She gave her a final kiss and said: "Goodbye my darling."

Keeping her promise to Sybil, Mary supported Tom, against her father, to baptize her niece and goddaughter, Sybbie, Catholic. She attended Sybbie's christening with the rest of the family. She also begins to support Matthew's plans for modernizing Downton to make it financially self-supporting, which her father initially opposes. While she and Matthew are intent on having children, it is hinted they may be having reproductive issues. Mary and Matthew meet by coincidence at a reproductive health clinic run by Dr Ryder, where Mary reveals she underwent a small and successful operation in order to strengthen their chances of conceiving. Despite previous tension between them, the series ends with them happily reaffirming their love for each other.

In September 1921, an eight-month pregnant Mary travels to Duneagle Castle in Scotland with the family. Branson stayed behind because he was not invited, something that doesn't concern him. After the ball, Mary regrets dancing and tells Matthew that she's returning to Downton the next day. Matthew volunteers to accompany her, but Mary insists that he stay and enjoy the last few days of their trip.

Six months after the death of Matthew, Mary is still struggling to come to terms with her loss, and she is very cold towards everyone. She doesn't appear to have a close relationship with her son George, who she prefers to leave in the care of the nannies, calling him a "poor little orphan". She refuses to wear anything other than black when Anna suggests a lilac outfit and when walking down the stairs, she stops when she sees and remembers the place where she and Matthew once kissed. She also has a rather awkward conversation with her sister Edith on the stairs when Mary realises it was Valentine's Day and asks Edith what her plans are for the day, saying she hopes she has a good time. Although many of her family members, including the also widowed Tom Branson and Mr. Carson, attempt to help Mary move on, she ignores and dismisses them. Tom feels that Mary needs to find something to fight for and that this should be, as George's guardian, the protection of his inheritance as the next heir to Downton Abbey estate. Lord Grantham refuses Tom's suggestion, claiming many times that they should not bother her with such troubles. He thinks that since Matthew left no will, he assumes he should take charge of George's share in the estate, which would result in Mary having no say in the running of the estate.

On one occasion, she gets a angry with Mr. Carson when he tells her she is giving up. She feels it was his place to tell her what she should do. It goes from bad to worse at the dinner table that night, when her mother, grandmother and Tom try to encourage Mary to be more involved in the running of Downton to which her father tries to again, to protect Mary. She gets upset and upon breaking into tears, yells at everyone to leave her alone. She storms out of the dining room and returns to her bedroom. It isn't until her grandmother, Violet Crawley, has a talk with her that she starts to come to terms with Matthew's death. She tells her grandmother she feels she has become the cold person she used to be and that perhaps she was only kind in Matthew's imagination. She tells her grandmother she doesn't understand why she has come to talk to her, to which she replies that it because she is her grandmother and she loves her. She is told she must choose between life or death, to which Mary begins to understand that she must choose life. As she begins her attempt to move on, she pays a visit to Mr. Carson to apologise for the way she spoke to him the day before. She breaks down in front of him, telling him she doesn't know how to move on. He comforts her, telling her she is a strong woman and she will find a way.

Later on, Mary decides to wear a lilac dress rather than a black dress to attend a luncheon to discuss the running of Downton as she finally begins to move on. Shortly after, a box containing Matthew's things from his office is delivered to Downton. Mr. Carson decided the box should best be sent to Robert first, in case it upsets Mary. Robert begins to look into the box, and as he examines a book a letter drops out of it. The letter was written by shortly before the trip to Scotland. The letter states what he would had wanted Mary to be his sole heiress in the event of his death, which Matthew had thought was the best thing to do now that Mary was pregnant. Robert hesitates to give it Mary at first, but he is persuaded otherwise when Violet says it is wrong to keep it from her. He also states that although it is not properly documented, he intended after this trip for his wishes to be legally written up. However, Robert was still determined that it was not a will and that he will have Murray look at the document. It is later determined that the letter demonstrates testamentary intent therefore it is a will. In addition, when Matthew wrote the letter there were two witnesses who saw him doing so.

It is clear at first that Robert was not too happy at the thought of sharing Downton with Mary. He kept telling Mary that it couldn't have been a proper will. At dinner, she innocently tells everyone she would like her opinions to be heard in the event that the letter is seen as a will. Robert finds himself slightly annoyed at the prospect and bullies Mary by telling her of the many things he would like her opinion about knowing her present knowledge running an farm estate is limited at the moment, which makes Mary remark he must have some sort of point and Cora remark that he trying to say a woman's place is in the home.

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