During which war does the second season of Downton Abbey take place?

The second season of Downton Abbey takes place during World War I, also called the First World War.

Series two covers the later years of the conflict and the first period of peace. Its story begins around the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and follows the characters through the Armistice in November 1918, with the Christmas special extending into the postwar period.

The war transforms both the estate and the people who live there. Matthew Crawley serves as a British Army officer, William Mason is drafted, and Thomas Barrow joins the Medical Corps. Sybil challenges aristocratic expectations by becoming a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse. Downton itself is converted into a convalescent home for wounded officers.

The Spanish influenza pandemic also affects the family after the fighting ends, showing that the war's consequences continue beyond the battlefield. The Crimean War and Boer War belong to earlier generations, while World War II occurs decades later and is outside the show's main chronology.