page_title: List of Downton Abbey characters
section_title: Anna Bates
hierarchical_section_title: List of Downton Abbey characters / Staff / Anna Bates
caption_attribution_description: English: Joanne Froggatt May 2014
context_page_description: This is a list of characters from Downton Abbey, a British period drama television series created by Julian Fellowes and co-produced by Carnival Films and Masterpiece for ITV and PBS, respectively.
context_section_description: Anna May Bates (née Smith) (played by Joanne Froggatt) is lady's maid to Lady Mary at Downton Abbey; previously she was first parlour maid and head housemaid. She is 26 at the beginning of the series. She is very trustworthy, polite, and loyal to the Crawley family and her "downstairs" co-workers. Anna was the member of staff who helped Lady Mary and her mother Cora carry the corpse of Kemal Pamuk out of Lady Mary's bedroom and was the only one who openly welcomed valet John Bates to the household, despite everyone else's initial prejudice against him on account of his limp. After a long and somewhat secretive courtship she married Mr. Bates in the end of the second series in a private ceremony at a registrar's office. Lady Mary prepares a room for Anna and her husband in the main house so they can spend their wedding night together. Shortly after their wedding night, Bates is arrested for murdering his previous wife, although Anna and the rest of the residents at Downton are convinced that he is innocent. When Bates is deemed guilty and is sentenced to be hanged, Anna breaks down and briefly prepares to leave Downton Abbey with Lady Mary, whom she is very close to, offering to accompany her mistress on an extended holiday to America, much to Mary's delight. When the Crawleys manage to reduce Bates's sentence to life imprisonment, she decides to stay at Downton, although she vows that she will not rest until Bates is free.  Anna is promoted from head housemaid to Lady's Maid to Mary during Bates's incarceration. During the time apart from Bates, Anna refuses to fall into hopelessness or despair, though there is a brief period where this wavers, when letters and visits with her husband are stopped for a time. Her efforts to prove her husband's innocence become a success when a neighbour of Vera's inadvertently tells Anna details of their last meeting which prove that Vera committed suicide in order to have her husband convicted and hanged for the crime. Bates is freed, and the reunited married couple move into a cottage on the grounds shortly thereafter.
  In the third episode of the fourth series, Anna is violently assaulted and raped by Lord Gillingham's valet while the rest of family members and staff are attending a concert above stairs in the house. Anna only tells Mrs Hughes of the crime, fearing her husband would commit murder if he discovered the truth. She becomes distant from everyone, and is unable to even bear Mr Bates's touch, as she confesses to Mrs Hughes that she feels she no longer deserves him, and feels unclean. She decides to move back into Downton Abbey, leaving Mr Bates hurt and confused. Soon, however, Mrs Hughes tells Mr Bates what happened to Anna, although she refuses to disclose who was the culprit. Mr Bates reassures Anna that nothing will change between them, and that he will always support her. The two try to continue their lives; however, both find it difficult to look past what has happened. Mr Green briefly returns to Downton, and Lady Mary persuades Lord Gillingham to dismiss him, although she does not give him a reason. Anna worries that Mr Bates will have his revenge if her attacker's identity is ever revealed. Bates one day sets off to York alone, and returns the same day, and the family soon learn that Mr Green died in London that day, after falling under a bus. Anna is frightened that Bates discovered the truth and took his revenge.
  When a witness comes forward to claim Mr Green was murdered, the investigation causes Anna to fear Bates was responsible, but she is too frightened to confront him, as it will confirm the identity of her attacker. Anna then assists Lady Mary with procuring contraception for a sexual relationship with Lord Gillingham, but Bates finds the evidence and mistakenly believes Anna has been using it so she does not become pregnant with a murderer's child. Bates finally confronts his wife and reveals the truth; he realised Green was the attacker as soon as he returned to Downton, and he did intend to murder the valet the day he was killed. However, having bought the
caption: Joanne Froggatt plays Anna Bates
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