For 30 years, Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham was the indomitable chatelaine of one of England’s great country seats, Downton Abbey in Yorkshire. She continued to guide, inspire and occasionally infuriate her heir, Robert Crawley, the 7th Earl of Grantham, and his wife after they took over the running of the estate after her husband’s death.

Lady Grantham was born in 1842 to a baronet and married Patrick Crawley, the 6th Earl of Grantham, in 1859. The couple had a son, Robert – now the 7th Earl of Grantham – in 1866 and a daughter, Rosamund, in 1868. It was strongly rumoured that Lady Grantham opposed Robert’s apparently acquisitive marriage to an American heiress, Cora Levinson, whose father made his millions in the manufacture of dry goods. However, the 6th Earl of Grantham entailed that substantial dowry to the Downton Abbey estate to prevent its financial collapse.

Lady Grantham’s fortitude was a blessing to her family, since the Crawleys have been beset by many tragedies. They lost the then heir to Downton, James Crawley, and his son Patrick aboard the Titanic in 1912, and the subsequent heir, Matthew Crawley, in a car accident in 1921, shortly after the birth of his son George. Lady Sybil, Lady Grantham’s granddaughter, who caused a scandal by marrying the family’s Irish chauffeur, died in childbirth the previous year.

However, Lady Grantham has been instrumental in ensuring that Downton’s traditions are protected, frequently offering her sage advice to the next generation – whether or not it was sought. She was resistant to the forces of change, saying of her son’s introduction of electricity and telephones to Downton that it felt as though she was living in an HG Wells novel, and memorably asking Matthew Crawley, who worked as a solicitor: “What is a weekend?” 

Nor was she was fond of modern music, commenting on a group of jazz musicians: “Do you think that any of them know what the others are playing?”