The Spanish Flu

Fans of Downton Abbey's dramatic Mary-and-Matthew tale will recall the heartbreaking death of lovely Lavinia Swire, who essentially died to prevent an embarrassing love triangle. The penultimate episode of Downton Abbey's second season is centered on the 1918-19 Spanish Flu epidemic, which infected over 500 million people (one-third of the world's population at the time) and killed over 50 million. The disease, which got its name after first appearing in Southern Europe, was not caused by the First World War, but it spread quickly because so many men had spent so much time together. It's no surprise when several of the characters, notably Crawley matriarch Cora and Matthew's betrothed, Lavinia Swire (Zoe Boyle), fall dangerously ill.

Cora is on the verge of death, but Lavinia's sickness appears to be slight, and she remains calm and rational while she contemplates her future with Matthew. Cora heals in a couple of hours, but Lavinia deteriorates and succumbs to the sickness. The show illustrates the startling rapidity with which the Spanish Flu took its victims. It also makes sense that Cora was able to withstand the infection whereas Lavinia was not. Death rates were highest among healthy young individuals, with the median age of death in their mid-twenties.