16 Times Victoria Made Us Wish History Didn’t Happen

Image: ITV

He Sees Her as Every Inch a Queen

One of the strongest thematic undercurrents in Victoria is how women in power are viewed differently than men. Victoria is repeatedly distrusted, dismissed and disrespected because she’s a woman. She’s told several times that what she really needs is a man to give her reign some stability and focus. And she’s given no credit for having any ideas of her own. (Whether they’re good or bad ones.) The men around her question her very sanity at one point, for the most specious of reasons. And all because she wants to make her own decisions, and rejects the prospect of being led blindly by them.

Lord Melbourne is rather remarkable simply because he doesn’t do this. From their very first meeting, Melbourne realizes that Victoria is formidable in her own right. He sees that she has plenty of opinions and an agenda of her own. He acknowledges that the queen can and should determine her own future – in both the small things (choosing her private secretary) and the great (choosing a spouse). It’s refreshing to watch a man that doesn’t try to insist that they know better than she does, simply by virtue of being both older and male. (Which is what almost everyone else does.)

And Victoria’s reaction to having someone in her life who is openly on her side is kind of amazing. You can tell instantly that she’s never really had that kind of support before. Or, at least, not from someone who didn’t want to run her life for their own benefit. To finally have someone tell her that she can make decisions for her own life, and have those decisions respected and listened to must have been a pretty heady revelation. No wonder she becomes pretty obsessed with Melbourne so quickly. He’s one of the first people who not only encourages Victoria to be herself and own her power, but actually applauds her for doing so (whether he agrees with her decisions or not).