REFERENCE - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2405735/The-real-Downton-Abbey-Highcleres-dramatic-history-revealed-current-chatelaine-Lady-Carnarvon.html
The History of the house and the people who lived there.
Lord porchester (Porchey) and his young, glamorous Anglo-American wife Catherine Wendell were stationed in India in March 1923 when they received a telegram from Egypt, telling them that Porchey’s father, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, was dangerously ill.
Porchey arrived at the Continental Hotel Cairo to find that his mother, Lady Almina, was already there. She had hired a small biplane and flown from England to her husband’s bedside.
That evening Porchey had supper with his father’s colleague Howard Carter and his sister Evelyn. She’d been at their father’s side to witness the momentous unsealing of Tutankhamen’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings, an event that had created huge excitement all over the world. After nearly 20 years of excavations in the desert, the 5th Earl and Egyptologist Carter had made a discovery that would rewrite history. Now, just six weeks later, the first man to enter the tomb of the boy king in 3,000 years lay dangerously ill.
Later that night, Porchey was woken by a knock at the door. ‘I’m so sorry,’ one of the nurses said, ‘your father has died. Your mother has closed his eyes and would like you to go in and say a prayer.’
In the days to come, the world’s newspapers would work themselves into a state of feverish excitement over the Earl’s death. ‘The curse of Tutankhamen,’ shrieked the headlines. The Earl had, in fact, died of blood poisoning, contracted from a mosquito bite that he had nicked while shaving. The cut festered in the Egyptian heat and the illness seeped steadily through his body.
It was a terrible shock. The 5th Earl was only 56 when he died and Porchey and Catherine had been married less than a year. In addition to the grief and the worry for her husband, Catherine had to prepare for a new life. She was no longer the wife of an army officer. She had suddenly become the chatelaine of Highclere Castle, one of the loveliest country houses in England. She and Porchey were now the 6th Earl and Countess of Carnarvon.
The two women were in many respects not at all alike. Almina was a powerful personality with boundless energy for getting things done. Catherine was far more diffident by nature, with a quiet strength. Fortunately, she had her sister-in-law Evelyn by her side. Despite her grief for the father she adored, she was conscious that Catherine needed a guiding hand. Highclere was Evelyn’s home; she had never known any other.Catherine was technically the mistress of the house but in reality she was still very much the new girl. Almina had been running Highclere for 27 years, through peacetime and war. She could have done it in her sleep.
Catherine decided that she needed primarily to support her husband Porchey. Almina and Evelyn were devastated by their loss, but they had at least enjoyed a loving relationship with Lord Carnarvon. For Porchey it was more complex. He had lost the opportunity to build an adult relationship with the father he had never been close to as a child.
The new Earl of Carnarvon had an additional burden: debt. He owed half a million pounds in death duties and was told by his solicitor that Highclere would probably have to be sold. He loved the house and could not conceive of losing it and knew that the only person who could help him was his mother. But Almina was preparing to leave to make way for the new Earl and his wife, going round the castle putting stickers with ‘AC’ on her furniture and objets d’art, most of which had been given to her by her father, Alfred de Rothschild. Porchey couldn’t help feeling injured by the fact that his father had left her the very valuable Egyptian collection and all his racehorses.
Eight months after her husband’s death, Almina married again. And on 19 January 1924, Catherine was safely delivered of their first child, a healthy baby boy. Nine months later, Catherine was pregnant again and Porchey’s debt now needed to be paid. The moment had arrived to take some difficult decisions about what to sell.
There was one particularly valuable asset he was loath to part with – the famous Carnarvon pearl necklace. It had passed from generation to generation and can be seen adorning the painted neck of the first Lady Carnarvon in her portrait by Anthony Van Dyck, which still hangs in the dining room at Highclere. In the end he received £55,000 for the necklace. Next he sold two farms bordering Highclere and some of the household’s better silver. It was not enough.
Almost in despair, Porchey went to his mother. To his relief she said, ‘We’re in a more fortunate position than many families, darling. Of course I am happy to help.’ Good to her word, Almina gifted Porchey most of the racehorses and announced that she was arranging the sale of her late husband’s beloved Egyptian collection. She stipulated that Porchey also had to draw up a list of pieces to sell from Highclere.
Both 1926 and 1927 were glorious years for Catherine and Porchey. They had two children, Henry and Anne Penelope, whom they adored. The house was financially secure, they were young and wealthy and the Roaring 20s were in full swing. London was only an hour away by train and there was a huge amount of fun to be had there. Porchey in particular took full advantage.
The Carnarvon sale at Christie’s was one of the most important of the decade. According to The Times, the auction house resembled a private view at the Royal Academy. At the end of it all, when the debt was paid, Porchey and Catherine brought out some dusty paintings of relatives from the attic to replace the works by da Vinci, Botticelli and Van Dyck that had been sold. To their young friends who gathered at Highclere in the years to come, the gaps on the walls would not even be noticeable.
If the Carnarvons were in town together they stayed at the Ritz. London was dancing mad and Catherine loved to dance. As well as nightclubs and balls there were tea dances in the afternoons, so one could dance from four in the afternoon until four the following morning.
When Porchey was in London without Catherine he stayed at one of his five clubs. He frequently joined the Prince of Wales and Prince George, who took their carousing very seriously. Various pretty girls accompanied them, champagne flowed at the Embassy Club on Old Bond Street. There would be cabaret acts or a jazz band until the early hours when the guests tumbled out on to the streets.
The Prince of Wales was charming, with perfect manners. An early girlfriend was Miss Poppy Baring; very pretty with short dark hair – the classic flapper. Like many of her contemporaries she was less closely chaperoned than would have been the case before the war. Prince George was also keen on Poppy. The visitor books at Highclere record several weekend racing or shooting parties when both Prince George and Poppy were staying. The interconnecting bedroom doors meant it was hardly even necessary to creep along the corridors.
Highclere was full of life again, until the night of 16 July 1928 when Catherine’s brother Reggie Wendell wandered out of the library after supper to take some air and suffered a massive brain haemorrhage. He was just 32 years old. Catherine was devastated and began to turn not merely to a sherry before lunch but to several strong gins.
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There is much more on the actual Daily Mail page.
I think some of the storylines/plots within Downton abbey have been loosely based on the real life family of Highclere House. Obviously the old diaries found and used by the recent Lady of the house to make her book would have helped the writers/producers and directors create a realism within their drama.
the newspaper article goes on to say that Lady Cora in the show Downton abbey was actually loosely based on Almina, the mother to Porchey.
Lady Cora - http://downtonabbey.wikia.com/wiki/Cora_Crawley
However she was also said to be based on another person:
The inspiration for the character of Cora was in part the American Mary Leiter, who through her marriage to George Curzon would become Baroness Curzon of Kedleston and Vicereine of India. Mary Leiter was the daughter of a rich Chicago merchant (he would be one of the founders of what became the Marshall Field department store chain) and property speculator. Unlike Cora's father, however, Levi Leiter was not Jewish, but was instead a Lutheran of Pennsylvania Dutch background. In addition, unlike Cora's mother, Mary Leiter's mother Mary Theresa Carver Leiter was not a brash or vulgar figure in New York society, but lived in a mansion on Dupont Circle in Washington, DC
REFERENCE: http://downtonabbey.wikia.com/wiki/Cora_Crawley#cite_note-8
The Earl of Grantham.
There are a few different sources that say that this character could have been based on the 5th or 7th Earl of the house however this has never been confirmed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Downton_Abbey_characters
---------------------------------------------------------------x-------------------------------------------------------------Historical Events used in Downton Abbey.
Series 1 - The first series started the day after the Titanic sank , which included a storyline about Lord Granthams cousins dying in the wreckage. The plot went all the way to WW1 that began in August 1914.
Series 2 - This series storyline was based in 1916 and was about the battle of the Somme. Then ended in 1918 (the flu pandemic).
Series 3 - This series was all about the management of the estate.
Series 4 - has a storyline based on a very difficult matter - the rape of a lady's maid.
Reflection of research
Even though i have only used websites and a couple of Articles on this page, the information i found helped my research because it told me why certain characters were the way they were within the show 'Downton Abbey'. As a couple of characters are based on real people it makes the show a lot more authentic to real life and how life was in the 1910's and 20's.
I decided to add the historical events used within the TV series because this also shows how the production team have thought of how to authenticate the show and have an eye for detail.
This makes me believe that the social segregation used within the Tv series was used because this happened a lot over that period of time and it was a main part of social life.
reflecting back this page has really helped me push my work forward and made me find new things to look at such as going to the house the series is filmed at and looking into the history of it.
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