Downton Abbey's Most Scandalous Moments Ranked

People love period drama "Downton Abbey" for the glamorous 1920s costumes, the long-lost sense of propriety and nobility, and oh yeah, for the juicy scandals. The show, which begins in 1912 and leads into the mid 1920s, follows the wealthy Crawley family who run the Downton estate in England as well as their staff of maids, butlers, and other servants. The show follows an upstairs/downstairs format, peering into the lives of both the wealthy aristocracy and the more "regular" people who have jobs to do. It's addicting, it's beautiful, and the soapy plot points are most of the fun.

For a show about propriety, however, there are an awful lot of scandals on "Downton Abbey." Or maybe it's because of the expectation of perfection and the height of high manners that even the slightest thing could be considered a scandal. The scandals on this list range from very minor little dalliances to outright huge transgressions. Here are our favorite scandals on "Downton Abbey" ranked from, "Ooh that's juicy," all the way up to, "Oh! My! God!"

Robert Crawley, 7th Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), has a bit of a midlife crisis in Season 2. With his wife Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) sick in bed with the Spanish flu, Robert becomes an easy target for the new maid, Jane Moorsum (Claire Calbraith). She and Robert share some stories, some flirtations, and eventually even share a few kisses. 

Jane wasn't exactly being predatory, but she was a widow trying to look out for her 12 year old son, Freddie, after her husband died in the Great War. After Robert finds a placement for Freddie in a prestigious grammar school and promises to pay for his education, he and Jane sort of decide that it's for the best if they don't continue their little dalliance. Robert's betrayal came at a time when his own daughter, Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay), was straying from her family and having a relationship with the chauffeur (another scandal on this list), but the stress of that and his wife's illness is perhaps what led Robert astray. The story line showed that just because Robert is a very proper and noble person doesn't mean he's without his own flaws and isn't sometimes hypocritical in his actions. Cora never finds out about the smooches and moments shared between Robert and Jane, but she does get a bit of "revenge" in later seasons through a relationship with a fellow art admirer. 

Audiences learn early on in "Downton Abbey" that footman Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier) is gay. In Season 1, when Mary is still on the hunt for a husband, the noble Duke of Crowborough, Phillip Villiers (Charlie Cox), comes to Downton to potentially propose to Mary. But as it turns out, the Duke has come for other reasons as well. When the Crawleys were in London over the previous summer, the Duke fell into a relationship with Thomas, and it was Thomas who lured the Duke to Downton with the idea that if he married Mary, the Duke could then hire him as his valet and they could continue their relationship.

But when the Duke learns that Robert has no intention of fighting the line of succession (meaning Matthew is still his heir, not Mary) the Duke balks. When Thomas tries to blackmail him with old love letters, the Duke is yet one step ahead. They fight and the Duke burns the letters, leaving Thomas in the lurch. Knowing the poor treatment of gay people in the early 20th century makes Thomas' story all the more sad, especially as it develops over the course of the following seasons. This particular scandal never gets out, but is a catalyst for some of Thomas' other encounters and relationships.

Being British nobles, lords, and ladies, the Crawley family no doubt wants its daughters to marry into other prominent and wealthy families. This is a definite given for Mary, the oldest, as she is the daughter who clings most to the old ways of the aristocracy. Edith, the poor thing, tries to find herself a rich and proper husband throughout the series, and actually ends up the highest ranking of them all, in the end. Sybil, the youngest, is the most modern and revolutionary sister (she is the first to sport pants for one of their evening dinners). Fittingly, the upper class rebel falls in love with Tom Branson, (Allan Leech) the family's Irish chauffeur.

Tom and Sybil had hit it off during the war. He was impressed with her bravery and devotion to becoming a nurse, while she was already a bit progressive so the idea of dating an Irish servant sparked her interest. So when Tom and Sybil decided to keep their relationship from the family and elope, the whole household broke out in scandal. Mary, Edith, and maid Anna track Sybil down and stop her on her way to marry Tom in secret and convince her to come clean to the rest of her family. Sybil agrees, but stands up to her father, asserting that she's with him for life. The family makes up some acceptable backstory for Tom and the couple move to Dublin to marry "properly," with the scandal long forgotten.

It seems that Robert was a little bit right to be concerned with Tom's Irish background. After Sybil and Tom marry in Dublin and settle down for a little bit, trouble strikes. One night, Tom arrives back at Downton alone, having left his very pregnant wife back in Ireland. As it turns out, Tom's attendance at Irish Republican activist meetings has caught the eye of the British police forces in Ireland. They suspect that Tom was involved in the burning of an aristocrat's estate, so Tom flees the country and heads back to England. Sybil is a day behind him, traveling on her own after a dangerous uprising.

Naturally, Robert and the rest of the family are furious. Tom leaving his very pregnant wife in a foreign country to essentially save his own behind is not acceptable. Not only is the family shocked, even the downstairs team is surprised at Tom's behavior, with Carson saying he always knew Tom would bring shame to the family. Thankfully, Sybil arrives the next day, safe and unharmed. but her arduous journey puts stress on her pregnancy.

This scandal is long and complicated. It begins in Season 3 when Edith, fresh off being left at the altar, takes a job writing for a magazine. She meets editor Michael Gregson and the two fall in love and hit the sack before marriage. (Scandal!) Michael is actually married, although his wife is confined to a mental asylum and he cannot divorce her. He decides to become a citizen of Germany where one can divorce their locked up spouse. But once Michael is in Germany, disaster strikes and he goes radio silent just as Edith discovers she's pregnant with his child. As it turns out, Michael was murdered in a fight by German "Brown Shirts," the early Nazi party's military.

Pregnant with no husband, Edith is taken to Switzerland by Aunt Rosamund, to have the baby in secret and give it up for adoption, which she does, though only for a while. The finale of Season 4 sees Edith stomping off, heading back to the continent to retrieve her child. She leaves her daughter, Marigold, in the hands of farmer Timothy Drewe, one of their tenants, and his wife. But Mrs. Drewe rightfully grows suspicious, as does the rest of the family when Edith "adopts" Marigold. Eventually the truth comes out that Marigold is actually Edith's child. Mary even tries to sabotage Edith's relationship with her eventual husband, Bertie Pelham, by revealing who Marigold truly is, but it all works out in the end, with Edith a Marchioness, ranking higher than Mary ever will.

Scheming Mrs. O'Brien (Siobhan Finneran), Cora's lady's maid, is one of the more fun characters on "Downton Abbey" that audiences love to hate. In early seasons, she spends a lot of time plotting with Thomas, trying to get Bates fired, and trying to get herself a better position, among other gossip and grumpy talk. But her biggest scheme actually ends in tragedy. 

In Season 1, Cora finds out that she's pregnant, and the family is essentially hoping that the baby is a boy so that they don't have to leave the estate to Matthew. Cora puts out an ad for a new lady's maid for Violet, but O'Brien assumes Cora is looking to replace her. In retaliation, when Cora is taking a bath, O'Brien leaves a bit of soap on the floor just outside the tub. O'Brien feels sudden regret, but it's too late. Cora gets out of the tub, slips and the fall causes a miscarriage. The baby, it turns out, was a boy.

A few seasons later, tired of her scheming, Bates threatens O'Brien by saying "her ladyship's soap" to her face. Bates admits to Anna that he had no idea what it meant, only that Thomas told him to use it if he ever needed it. Aghast, O'Brien manipulates her way into another household, taking a job as lady's maid to Rose's mother just before they leave for India. O'Brien takes off "like a thief in the night," as Robert says.

The most scandalous scandal in the whole series of "Downton Abbey" happened in Season 1 in lady Mary's bedchamber. Kemal Pamuk (Theo James), the son of one of Turkey's Sultan's ministers, arrives at Downton while traveling in England for an international conference. Mary and Mr. Pamuk go on a hunt, flirt, spend a lot of time together, and kiss passionately in the halls of Downton. That evening, Pamuk makes his way to Mary's bedroom and coerces her into having sex. But in the middle of the act, Pamuk suffers a heart attack and dies in her bed. Mary has to get help from Anna and her own mother to get Pamuk back to his own bedchamber. Maid Daisy (Sophie McShera) sees them in the hallway, but in the morning, a doctor declares that Mr. Pamuk died in his own bed.

Of course, the scandal doesn't end there, as many other family and staff members find out about Mary's dalliance with Mr. Pamuk. Edith lets the gossip slip to a newspaper, while Bates' wife, Vera, even tries to use the news as blackmail. Eventually, Mary has to come clean to her fiancé, Matthew, as well, though he finds a way to get past it. But in the world of "Downton Abbey," Mary's sexy evening with Mr. Pamuk, his sudden death, and the reverberations throughout the following seasons are definitely the biggest scandal of the series.