History Series / Victoria

* FreakOut: Victoria essentially throws a temper tantrum after Lord M tells her he'll have to resign, precipitating the Bedchamber Crisis. (Possibly TruthInTelevision if the tone of Victoria's real-life diaries of the period are any indication.)

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Victoria, who aims towards being a progressive queen for her age, up to and including opposition of hanging, drawing and quartering, shows us how personal things are between her and her would-be assassin when she advocates for his being hanged, drawn and quartered. Only the news that the sanity of the culprit is in question convinces her to relent.

* UnnecessaryMakeover: When Victoria puts on makeup to fit with the ladies of King Louis Phillipe's court in season 2, Albert considers it to be this.

* BolivianArmyEnding: Series 3 ends with [[spoiler:Prince Albert collapsing in front of Victoria]].

* CompositeCharacter: Lord M incorporates the role of Baron Stockmar, a major figure in the early years of Victoria's reign and a trusted advisor, but who is AdaptedOut in this series.

%% * DancesAndBalls: There are several throughout the series, often to celebrate some occasion related to Victoria and/or her rule.

%% ** Ernest displays clear signs of clinical depression.

* HeroicBlueScreenOfDeath: After Lord M tells her he has to resign, Victoria is seen walking listlessly through a garden in the rain, raising concern from her ladies.

* SilkHidingSteel: Lady Palmerston is sweetness and flowers and all of that good stuff, but she declares that her husband ''will'' be Prime Minister one day. [[spoiler: Now, if you know your history, she ''is'' going to succeed as Palmerston ''does'' become Prime Minister, so one wonders just ''what'' steel she has inside her.]]

* LighterAndSofter: Compared to other historical dramas set during the Victorian era.

%% ** Victoria also occasionally takes up residence at the older, but just-as-grand Windsor Castle.

%% ** And then there's the home that Victoria and Albert visit in "Engines of Change" which is so big carriages are driven ''inside'' to unload guests.

* ChezRestaurant: Several upscale restaurants appear throughout the series, including a dinner club where the King of Hanover is disrespected for [[spoiler: having allegedly Edward Oxford to assassinate Queen Victoria]], a restaurant called Ciro's where Lord Alfred likes the oysters [[spoiler: and where Drummond was going to have dinner the night he was killed]], and two separate restaurants where Francatelli is the chef at after leaving the palace.

* PresentDayPast:
** The episode "Engine of Change" contains two dialogue anachronisms. A character is referred to as a "fan" of the railway; although the term "fanatic" was in use to refer to devotees, the shortened form "fan" didn't come into wide use until Americans started using it in the late 19th century, several decades after the episode. Later, the phrase "just sayin'" is uttered, even though its use in this specific context wasn't popularized until the last couple of decades (reportedly, ''Series/DowntonAbbey'' also features this phrase anachronistically).
** The final episode of Series 2 takes place in 1846, yet Prince Ernest plays the "Bridal Chorus" (a.k.a. "Here Comes the Bride"), which isn't composed until 1850. And he also talks about how it has become popular with weddings, something that doesn't happen until 1858 when it was played at the wedding of Victoria's eldest daughter.

* RailEnthusiast: Albert falls in love with the concept of the railroad, to the point where it actually leads to his and Victoria's first (on-screen) argument.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

** Baron Stockmar, who was a trusted advisor to the Queen in her early years as monarch, and a major figure in her life, is completely absent. As a result, in this telling, Lord M becomes something of a CompositeCharacter of the historical Lord M and Stockmar (with other aspects of Stockmar being distributed among other mentor-like characters such as the Duke of Wellington). Notably, he was also written out of TheYoungVictoria.

* {{Novelization}}: Creator Daisy Goodwin adapted the first half of Series 1 as the novel ''Victoria'', focusing on the Victoria-Lord Melbourne relationship (and cranking the ShipTease aspects UpToEleven in the process). Note: Goodwin actually began writing the novel ''before'' the TV series was commissioned, but it wasn't published until after Series 1 aired.

* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Even if you disregard that Victoria is the monarch and Albert is the consort (which would have been awkward enough in the 1840s), they will often play with the gender roles of their time period. Victoria is very dedicated to her duties as the monarch, so she won't allow anybody to doubt her ability to rule the country just because she's a woman. And even though she often wears beautiful gowns and jewelry, she might also wear masculine-looking uniforms if she's doing something more active outdoors. She found it hard to go through her first pregnancy, because it made people just expect her to become more passive, that is, more "feminine". And even after her daughter was born, she was more interested in returning to her work, riding horses and inspecting army troops than in caring about her newborn baby. Not to mention that she's a generally more extroverted person than her husband, which would have been funny to their contemporaries... Albert on the flip side might be good at plenty of traditionally masculine activities, like fencing and hunting and horse-riding. But he still is more brooding and introverted and sensitive than what was the ideal for a man back then, [[SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan in a huge contrast to his more macho brother Ernst]] (although, interestingly, this kind of sensitivity was very much the fashion for well-off young German men in the period, what with the emergence of {{Romanticism}}). And he also was way more excited than his wife about having a baby, and he's more likely than her to bond with their children and play with them.

* AdultFear: Finding out not only that your son is being abused by his tutor, but that your sister/sister-in-law whom you left in charge didn't notice anything amiss.

* TheOtherDarrin: King Louis Philippe is played by Bruno Wolkowitch in Series 2 and Vincent Regan in Series 3.

* TheOtherDarrin: King Louis Philippe is played by Bruno Wolkowitch in Series 2 and by Vincent Regan in Series 3.

* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Even if you disregard that Victoria is the monarch and Albert is the consort (which would have been awkward enough in the 1840s), they will often play with the gender roles of their time period. Victoria is very dedicated to her duties as the monarch, so she won't allow anybody to doubt her ability to rule the country just because she's a woman. And even though she often wears beautiful gowns and jewelry, she might also wear masculine-looking uniforms if she's doing something more active outdoors. She found it hard to go through her first pregnancy, because it made people just expect her to become more passive, that is, more "feminine". And even after her daughter was born, she was more interested in returning to her work, riding horses and inspecting army troops than in caring about her newborn baby. Not to mention that she's a generally more extroverted person than her husband, which would have been funny to their contemporaries... Albert on the flip side might be good at plenty of traditionally masculine activities, like fencing and hunting and horse-riding. But he still is more brooding and introverted and sensitive than what was the ideal for a man back then, [[SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan in a huge contrast to his more macho brother Ernst]]. And he also was way more excited than his wife about having a baby, and he's more likely than her to bond with their children and play with them.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory:
** While Victoria and Melbourne were indeed very close, he was actually forty years her senior. While that us not in itself a disqualifying factor (especially in the 1800s when such an age gap was not unheard of), historical scholarship suggest they shared a father/daughter relationship, rather than the romantic tension portrayed in the series. The only contemporary observer, diarist Charles Greville (who worked for the monarch's Privy Council), claimed outright stated that Victoria's feelings for Melbourne were sexual though she didn't recognize the fact; Greville greatly hated Queen Victoria and vice versa, and Victoria was extremely upset when his gossipy diaries about her were published. There are are only a couple (such as tabloid journalist A.N. Wilson) who depict their relationship as semi-romantic, though even early biographer Elizabeth Longford calls their relationship "one of the platonic romances of history." Victoria's relationship with Lord Melbourne has also been noted among historians for being politically motivated on his part; he instigated both the Lady Flora affair and the Bedchamber Crisis. Even after he had organized the bodily invasion of Flora, he continued to insist to Victoria she was pregnant. Victoria would later write when thinking of Lord Melbourne, ‘1st October, 1842. Wrote & looked over & corrected my old journals, which do not now awake very pleasant feelings. The life I led then was so artificial & superficial, & yet I thought I was happy. Thank God! I now know what real happiness means.’
** The real Duke of Cumberland left England for Hanover a year before Victoria's coronation and didn't return until the early 1840s.
** The Lady Flora Hastings affair occurred months after the Coronation, not during it. Some historians have implied that Lord Melbourne was as much to blame for it getting out of hand as Victoria; in the series, the blame falls on Victoria, her judgement being clouded by her paranoia about and dislike of Conroy, and it is characterized as a learning moment for the young queen.
** Victoria's coronation is substantially truncated from the real event, and also omits some of the more chaotic moments (such as the archbishop putting a ring on the wrong finger; the only suggestion that the event didn't go smoothly is the fact her gown is placed at a slightly awkward angle and appears close to falling off). The crowning also took place more than a year after she ascended the throne (most British coronations take a year or more to arrange after the death of the preceding monarch, which is why Edward VIII was never crowned), whereas the series makes it appear that it took place not long after she became Queen.
** A major figure in Victoria's early reign, Baron Stockmar, is AdaptedOut of the series entirely. In real life, he was King Leopold's physician and acted on his behalf in terms of preparing Victoria to meet Albert and also acted as a mentor to her (in addition to Lord Melbourne). In the series, Stockmar's function is transferred to Leopold himself, and Lord M is depicted as her sole (political) mentor.
** Historically, Victoria considered her uncle Leopold her "best and kindest advisor", not least for setting up her marriage to Albert, whom unlike in the series she was immediately taken with after meeting him a year before becoming Queen. In the series, Leopold is depicted as manipulative and disliked by Victoria, although [[spoiler: they finally bond in the final episode of Series 1, though in Series 2 rifts erupt]].
** Edward Oxford's assassination attempt occurred in June 1840 when Victoria was four months pregnant. In the series, it happens shortly before Victoria gives birth to her daughter in November 1840. The episode also indicates that Oxford's pistols were not loaded; in reality, they were.
** The Duchess of Sutherland's marriage was a happy one. Also, by 1840, she had seven living children. Her husband makes a brief appearance in Series 2 and the fact she has children is mentioned in brief, but her kids are never seen.
** The show has George Sutherland, Harriet's husband [[spoiler: dying from a hunting accident in the 1840s.]] In real life, he [[spoiler: didn't die until 1861, after an illness, at the age of 75]].
** In the second series, the Duchess of Buccleuch, Mistress of the Robes, is played by Dame Diana Rigg, who is in her seventies. The real Lady Charlotte Anne Montagu Douglas Scott, Duchess of Buccleuch, was in her thirties when she entered Her Majesty's service.
** The second series has [[spoiler: Dash dying at around the same time that the retired Melbourne (apparently) succumbs to his own deterioration. In reality Dash died in 1840 whereas Melbourne died in 1848 (in fact he was still Prime Minister until 1841)]].
** Victoria's attitude exhibited during the Irish potato famine is at odds with histories of the period.
** Similarly, her attitude towards her children is also at odds with the histories that suggest Victoria was rather resentful of them. The first episode of Series 2 does touch on this, but dismisses it as Victoria exhibiting what would today be called postpartum depression.
** Series 2 strongly suggests that [[spoiler: Albert is Leopold's illegitimate son]]. Although the narrative intentionally leaves the truth of the matter ambiguous, the only historian who notably promoted this idea was David Duff in a 1972 biography, with only circumstantial evidence, and the claim is generally considered to be without merit by historians.
** The timing and circumstances of [[spoiler: Edward Drummond's assassination are changed significantly from real life (although he did die shielding Robert Peel from a bullet]]), while his same-sex relationship with [[spoiler:Lord Alfred Paget]] is pure fiction.
** Victoria and Albert have fewer children at the end of Series 2 (the final episode being set in 1846) than they had in real life by this point.
** Lehzen was dismissed in 1841, which would be near the beginning of Series 2, but the show has her dismissed at the end of Series 2, around 1846. The circumstances are much the same, but the change in chronology means that Princess Victoria is much older. In real life, she was an infant at the time of the incident.
** Averted with the character of Prince George, who appears in the Series 1 episode "Brocket Hall", as a disinterested suitor for Victoria who is pushed forward by the Duke of Cumberland. It has been pointed out that the Duke of Cumberland's son, Prince George of Cumberland, was blind in RealLife, which is why he wasn't considered a candidate for Victoria's hand by anyone except his father, while the Prince George we see here does not have this disability. However, the Duke at one point refers to him as ''nephew'', meaning that this Prince George is Prince George of Cambridge, the son of the Duke of Cumberland's youngest brother, the Duke of Cambridge. George of Cambridge was considered as a potential husband for Victoria, but, as shown in the series, he was not interested in becoming Prince Consort.
** One of Victoria's suitors is the handsome Russian Grand Duke Alexander, who ends up marrying a Danish princess instead. While Grand Duke Alexander did visit Victoria early in her reign there was never any intention of marriage, for the simple reason that Alexander was the heir to the Russian throne. Furthermore it was Alexander's son who eventually married a Danish princess.
** The main arc of Series 3 revolves around the antagonistic relationship between Victoria and her half sister, Feodora. The show was much criticized for radically changing what was historically a warm and loving sisterly bond.
** During the 1854 cholera outbreak, Florence Nightingale is depicted saying that she doesn't believe in miasma theory. In fact, Nightingale was a strong proponent of miasma theory throughout her life. Furthermore, the show has Nightingale reasoning that miasma theory must be false because she hasn't caught cholera from her patients, but that's exactly what miasma theory would predict. It was the opponents of miasma theory, the "contagionists," who believed that disease was spread from person to person. (Of course, we now know that certain diseases ''are'' spread from person to person, but it happens that cholera is not one of them. Not that the miasma proponents had it right either--cholera spreads in ''water'' and, while it commonly enters the water supply through fecal matter, the pathogen is in itself odourless.)
** On that note, the episode with the 1854 cholera outbreak features, as a subplot, the 1847 Cambridge Chancellor election. In the show's universe, both events have apparently been relocated to circa 1848-49.

* GreatOffscreenWar: The Napoleonic wars. They are talked about but because Napoleon Bonaparte is dead, it's more of a PTSD thing.
** Many people in the UK are terrified of Napoleon III when they hear about his rise to power and becoming a self-proclaimed "emperor of France."

* MSNBCConservative: The Tories in season 1 are somewhat potrayed this way, with the main exception of Lady Flora, Sir Robert Peel, the Duke of Wellington and possibly Mr Penge. They are more sympathetic in season 2 and 3.

* OddFriendship: Leopold I of Belgium allies with Catholics in many political/religious conflicts, despite being born and raised a Protestant. In RealLife, Leopold I of Belguim was loved by his Catholic subjects in Belgium for allying with Catholic majority France against the Protestant majority Netherlands in their war of independece against the Netherlands. He even marries the Catholic daughter of the French Catholic king at the time.
** He is still held in rather high regard by Catholic historians. Protestants in contrast regarded him as a traitor at the time for allying with the Catholic majority Belgium against the Protestant majority Netherlands. Not to mention his marriage to a Catholic who became queen of Belgium.

* FoxNewsLiberal: The Whigs have many of the negative sterotypes of liberals/left-wingers amplified in this series. Lazy, irresponsible, dishonorable, incompetent, undisciplined, hyocritical, entitled, self-rightious among other negative traits.
** The Whigs think they are always right, everyone else is always wrong and they and they alone are on "the right side of history" all the time. DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything

* GreatOffscreanWar: The Napoleonic wars. They are talked about but because Napoleon Bonaparte is dead, it's more of a PTSD thing.

* FoxNewsLiberal: The Whigs have many of the negative sterotypes of liberals/left-wingers amplified in this series. Lazy, irresponsible, dishonorable, undisciplined, hyocritical, entitled, self-rightious among other negative traits.

** The Whigs think they are always right, everyone else is always wrong and they and they alone are on "the right side of history" all the time. DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?

* FoxNewsLiberal: The Whigs have many of the negative sterotypes of liberals/left-wingers amplified in this series. Lazy, irresponsible, dishonrable, undisciplined, hyocritical, entitled, self-rightious among other negative traits.