Laura Carmichael Reflects on Maggie Pole's Emotional Scene in the Tower in the Spanish Princess Finale

Photo credit: Nick Briggs
Photo credit: Nick Briggs

From Town & Country

The Spanish Princess has not gone easy on Margaret Pole. Over the course of eight episodes, Laura Carmichael's character has progressed from Prince Arthur's confidant and the cousin of the Queen, to a desperate, destitute mother simply trying to provide for her family, to a revolutionary at odds with the English monarchy.

But she doesn't hit rock bottom until tonight's episode, "Destiny," in which she finds herself imprisoned in the Tower of London with her children, in the same cell where her brother Teddy was once held before his execution. (He was put to death in order to eliminate a potential threat to the crown.)

The moment she realizes the significance of the setting is one of the most emotional of the series thus far.

"That scene is so intense because I felt like the way I wanted to play her was kind of like having panic attack, really because of the memory of it and how incredibly sad [Teddy's] life was," Carmichael explains to T&C.

"This is where they put you before they take you to the tower [to have your] chopped off, and she's there with her kids. She knows what it means, and the names are on the walls."

Photo credit: Starz / Getty
Photo credit: Starz / Getty

By the end of the episode, which serves as the culmination of part one of the miniseries, Pole and her children are back in the good graces of the King, the newly named Henry VIII, and his bride, Catherine of Aragon.

But unfortunately that favor won't last.

Earlier this month, Starz announced that it will be expanding The Spanish Princess with eight additional episodes. At this point it has yet to be announced if Carmichael will return to the show, but if she does, Pole could continue to play a key role in the story.

After many years of marriage, Catherine of Aragon failed to produce a male heir, and so Henry VIII chose to break with Catholic church in order to divorce her. For her part, Margaret is thought to have remained loyal to both her faith and to Catherine. That loyalty, as well as the "pro-papal activities of Margaret's son Reginald," and her symbolic role as one of the last members of the House of York, led to her imprisonment in the Tower of London and eventually her death. She was executed by axe in 1541 for treason.

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