One contentious relationship on the show is that of the Dowager Countess Violet, the Earl Robert's mother, and Robert's wife Cora, an American-born heiress. Cora, like many other wealthy American girls, came to England in search of a husband and married Robert in what was first a marriage of convenience – Robert needed the money. But creator Julian Fellowes says Violet wasn't happy with the marriage from the beginning. "She would rather have taken less of a dowry with someone who knew the ropes better," he said. Another cardinal sin in Violet's eyes: not providing a son. "In those days the selection of the sex – in fact, anything 'defective' about a child – was thought to be the woman's fault," Fellowes said. "By definition, of course, your mother-in-law had always managed to have a son."
