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No worries 
Or Mary could get pregnant and then Matthew dies so the heir will be Mary's child, RIGHT ? Omg I am so confused |
Easiest way to think of it is that males sired by Robert will always precede Matthew and his progeny. Even if a woman showed up with a son by Patrick and a secret wedding certificate would beat out Matthew because Patrick has precedent over Matthew.
Matthew actually has a very tenuous grasp on the earldom. The Crawleys better hope that the first and second earl had lots of boys who continued to have boys because Matthew is a male line descendent of the youngest son of the 3rd Earl of Grantham and Robert is the seventh Earl of Grantham, so that means any brothers between Robert's great-grandfather and Matthew's great-great grandfather didn't have any male line heirs that survived until now. If Matthew and Mary fail to have a boy, they would have to go looking for the sons of the first and second Earl. This of course doesn't take into the account the Administration of Estates Act of 1925 that allowed daughters to inherit Estates.