Episode list

Downton Abbey

Episode #2.1

Sat, Sep 17, 2011
After Bates' mother dies, he hopes his inheritance will buy him a divorce and allow him to marry Anna, Matthew announces his engagement to Lavinia Swire, and Sybil gets involved in the war effort.
8.5 /10
Episode #2.2

Sat, Sep 24, 2011
April 1917. With John still absent, Isobel's butler Molesley makes a play for Anna but is rejected. Robert gets a new valet, shell-shocked ex-soldier Henry Lang, whilst William goes off to war. Edith learns to drive a tractor extremely well, and nearly succumbs to a kiss from the married farmer Mr. Drake. Sybil and Thomas work in the cottage hospital, where the latter begins to learn some humanity. At Isobel's suggestion - and to Violet's dismay - Downton Abbey is turned into a convalescent ward to ease the hospital's bed shortage. Mary invites middle-aged newspaper tycoon, and prospective beau, Sir Richard Carlisle to a dinner party, also attended by the Crawleys and Lavinia. Suspicious of Carlisle, Violet invites her daughter and sister to the Earl, Lady Rosamund, who is intrigued by the fact that Carlisle and Lavinia already seem well-acquainted. Carson, despite being taken ill whilst serving dinner, is still perceptive enough to suggest to Mary that Matthew is really the man for her.
8.1 /10
Episode #2.3

Sat, Oct 01, 2011
Downton is turned into a convalescent hospital for the war-wounded and, through circumstances, Thomas is given authority in its operation. Anna and Bates are briefly reunited, and Branson plots against a heroic general who is dining at Downton.
8 /10
Episode #2.4

Sat, Oct 08, 2011
Matthew and William are missing in France, the mounting tensions between Cora and Isobel result in Isobel's volunteering for France, Bates returns to Downton, and the servants open a soup kitchen for unemployed veterans.
8.3 /10
Episode #2.5

Sat, Oct 15, 2011
August 1918: Deserted by the baby's father, Ethel has been installed with her child in a cottage on the estate by a sympathetic Mrs. Hughes, who brings her food. Jane, a war widow, has taken Ethel's place as a maid. Vera Bates returns, having spent John's money but with no intention of sticking to their arrangement and planning to make money by selling the story of Lady Mary's indiscretion to Carlisle's newspaper. Tipped off by Anna, Mary goes to see him and explains all, thus scotching Vera's plan as the newspaper owner threatens her with libel action. Having returned to the war, both Matthew and William sustain severe injuries at the Battle of Amiens, fatally in the case of William, who marries Daisy. Mary is glad to become a hospital auxiliary to nurse Matthew, though his spinal damage will, in all probability, leave him paralysed from the waist down and impotent.
8.5 /10
Episode #2.6

Sat, Oct 22, 2011
An unrecognizable burn victim turns up at the convalescent home claiming to be Mary's presumed drowned cousin Patrick, Carlisle plans to lure Carson from Downton, and Bates' wife reneges on her divorce agreement.
8 /10
Episode #2.7

Sat, Oct 29, 2011
Ethel confronts her baby's grandparents, Bates thinks he might have played a role in his wife's death, Branson and Sybil elope, and Carlisle tries to recruit Anna to spy on Mary.
8.2 /10
Episode #2.8

Sat, Nov 05, 2011
The Spanish Flu disrupts plans for Matthew's wedding when Cora, Lavinia, Carson, Molesley, and other staff members fall ill. Ethel has to decide the future for her son, and Jane resigns from Downton.
8.7 /10
Christmas at Downton Abbey
Christmas 1919. Downton Abbey is hosting a lavish Christmas party, yet despite being the season of goodwill, tensions are rife and Bates' arrest has cast a shadow over the festivities.
9 /10

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Alhambra Decree 1492

Alhambra Decree 1492

On March 31, 1492, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Isabella and Ferdinand, issued the Alhambra Decree, an edict requiring the expulsion or conversion of all Jews from the Crowns of Castile and Aragon by July 31 of that year. The edict was issued shortly after Ferdinand and Isabella had won the Battle of Granada, completing the Catholic Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula from Islamic forces. As noted in the decree itself, it was issued to stop Jews from trying "to subvert the holy Catholic faith" by attempting to "draw faithful Christians away from their beliefs." Unfortunately, persecution by Catholics against the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula was not a new phenomenon in 1492. One hundred one years earlier, violence against the Jews of Castile erupted in what is known as the Massacre of 1391. After 4,000 Jews were murdered in Seville, the violence spread to more than 70 cities throughout Castile, resulting in the death of thousands of Jews while thousands others converted to Catholicism so their lives might be spared.Violence, persecution, and forced conversion continued against the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula into the 1400s. Because of that persecution, by 1415 more than half of the Jews of the crowns of Castile and Aragon had converted to Catholicism. But, because of the Spanish Inquisition, conversion did not guarantee the safety of former Jews in the region. Out of distrust by "Old Christians", popular revolts against the conversos broke out in 1449 and 1474. Jews who chose exile had to sell nearly all their possessions, taking only what they could carry. Whole communities packed up and left, their homes and sacred areas quickly reclaimed by the Catholic communities that remained. The expulsion led to mass migration of Jews from Spain to Italy, Greece, Turkey, North Africa, and the Mediterranean Basin. As a result of the Alhambra Decree, over 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism, and between 40,000 and 100,000 were expelled.

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