The Downton Abbey series is notable for many things, among them its incorporation of actual historical events as they sweep up and engulf its fictional characters. In this respect, Downton follows in a long tradition of historical fiction given its greatest impetus in the nineteenth century by Walter Scott in the United Kingdom and James Fenimore Cooper in the United States. Professor Hogle will examine the principal and most lasting features of this tradition as it flows into Downton Abbeyand highlight several key historical events and people that this series has incorporated and used as motivators over its first three seasons.