page_title: List of Downton Abbey characters
section_title: Vera Bates
hierarchical_section_title: List of Downton Abbey characters / Friends and acquaintances / Vera Bates
caption_attribution_description: English: Orphan Black cast members in 2014: Ari Millen, Kristian Bruun, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Dylan Bruce, Jordan Gavaris and Tatiana Maslany Deutsch: Die Castmitglieder Ari Millen, Kristian Bruun, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Dylan Bruce, Jordan Gavaris und Tatiana Maslany im Jahr 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: Vera Bates (played by Maria Doyle Kennedy) (d. 1918) was the estranged wife of John Bates. Having known each other since childhood, they marry young and had a very unhappy marriage. In between serving in the Anglo-Boer War and joining the staff at Downton Abbey, John Bates went to prison for a theft that Vera had committed.
  Using her husband's name, she obtains a service post in the household of the Marquess of Flintshire since the Marchioness of Flintshire is the Earl of Grantham's cousin. The Marchioness's lady's maid tells Vera about Lady Mary's liaison with Kemal Pamuk. When Vera learns that her husband has a larger than expected inheritance after his mother's death, she arrives at Downton Abbey. She asks for large amounts of money, refusing a divorce so he cannot marry fellow servant Anna, and blackmails him, threatening to expose Lady Mary's secret. She also wants her husband back since she has tried living on her own and does not like it. Bates returns to London with her to live in his mother's home but soon separates after learning that she has been unfaithful to him. Eventually he returns to his post as Robert's valet, and he and Anna rekindle their romance. O'Brien, always against Bates, writes to Vera to tell her where he is and about his and Anna's blossoming romance.
  Irate, she goes to Sir Richard Carlisle and sells him the story of Lady Mary, unaware that Sir Richard is engaged to Lady Mary and has no intention of publishing the story. Furious over this, she tells the judge in her divorce case that Bates paid her off to consent to it. The judge voids the divorce decree, with the result that Vera and John are still legally married. Mr Bates goes to London to confront her and returns to Downton with a large scratch on his face, telling Anna that their meeting went terribly. The next day, Vera is found dead from ingestion of rat poison. The police are convinced that Bates murdered her and he is convicted and sentenced to death, before the sentence is commuted to life in prison. While John is in prison, Anna is able to track down a neighbour of Vera's who saw her on the day of her death. She tells Anna that she remembers Vera had dried food under her fingernails, meaning that Vera made the pie herself knowing that her husband would be implicated for murder. The neighbour also stated that she had seen Vera walking down the street when the gas lights had come on (she said they made a sort of "halo" around Vera's head), which would have been when Bates was already on his way back home. Bates is then released from prison due to the neighbour's statement.
caption: Maria Doyle Kennedy played Vera Bates
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