16 Times Victoria Made Us Wish History Didn’t Happen
By Lacy Baugher
Photo: ITV
Historical Cosplay is the Best
Victoria really leans in to the idea that Queen Victoria loved Queen Elizabeth I. This makes a lot of sense, as she was also a young woman who came to her throne at an early age. Elizabeth went on to defy all her naysayers, rule for 45 years and launch a “golden age” in British history. And she never married, choosing instead to spend her entire reign ruling on her own terms. Of course young Victoria would find that appealing. They had something else in common too. Elizabeth also had a lifelong, occasionally rather scandalous “friendship” with a man she was rumored to love but couldn’t marry: Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester.
Although Melbourne insists that he and Victoria can’t be together romantically – because of duty and country and all that – both he and the young queen seem heartbroken. But he still comes to her costume ball, dressed as the Earl of Leicester to her Elizabeth. The fact that he still comes in this costume, knowing what Victoria herself would be dressed as, is the sort of exquisitely painful but lovely moment that period dramas do so well. “He and the queen both understood that they were not in a position to marry…whatever their inclination,” Melbourne admits to Victoria at one point, after calling himself “her Leceister”.
It’s absolutely as close as he’ll ever come to telling Victoria that he loves her too. And while it’s devastating to watch as a fan of the pairing, in a way, it’s also oddly comforting. If we can’t actually create an alternate timeline where the two of them happily run England together for years with the power of our shipping, at least we have this. Which, admittedly, isn’t nearly as much as we’d like it to be, but there’s something to be said for the fact that at least Lord M let Victoria know that she wasn’t alone in her desire for something she couldn’t have. It’s almost enough to make you want to cosplay them, a little bit.