Cora Crawley, the Countess of Grantham

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Cora Crawley (née Levinson), the Countess of Grantham, Viscountess Downton (b. 1868) is the American heiress daughter of Martha and Isidore Levinson and sister of Harold Levinson. She married Robert Crawley, Viscount Downton who became Earl of Grantham upon his father's death, and brought her large dowry to Downton.

Lady Grantham has three daughters, Mary, Edith and Sybil, and her main focus has been their happiness and success. 18 years after the birth of her last child, Sybil, Lady Grantham fell pregnant once again with a son, but miscarried. In 1920, after giving birth to Sybil 'Sybbie' Branson, Sybil died of complications, and Cora blamed her husband, who ignored Doctor Richard Clarkson's warnings in favor of the opinions of stuffy London doctor Sir Philip Tapsell. A year later Cora became a grandmother for the second time when her eldest daughter Mary gave birth to a son, George. Within the hour of his birth, George became the heir to his grandfather's title and Downton Abbey as his father, the Matthew Crawley, was killed in a car crash. Cora is also grandmother to her second daughter Edith's illegitimate daughter, Marigold.