Book Review: The Duty of Women

Reviewed by Lauren Hayataka

Love, duty, and ambition collide in a narrative that refuses to overlook the women behind the crown.

The Duty of Women thrusts readers back into the nerve-racking corridors of Henry VIII’s court at the height of Anne Boleyn’s dazzling yet fraught reign. 

Narrated by Kat Cooke, who reveals her story to her daughter, the novel explores the sacrifices and compromises demanded of women in King Henry VIII’s court. Kat, Henry’s unacknowledged daughter with Katherine of Aragon, keeps her lineage concealed at Thomas Cromwell’s behest while trying to preserve her marriage to Will Cooke, a man increasingly caught up in Cromwell’s ambitions.

Willcocks offers an accessible glimpse into familiar Tudor milestones—Anne Boleyn’s push for religious reform, Henry’s determination for a male heir, and Jane Seymour’s emergence—while shedding light on often-overlooked nuances. Anne Boleyn, depicted as a woman driven by ambition and conviction, starkly contrasts the devoutly dutiful Katherine of Aragon. Both suffer under Henry’s shifting affection, and Kat, caught in the middle, provides a compassionate, feminine perspective rather than through a heavy political lens. 

Throughout, Kat’s story brims with personal cost—her uncertain marriage to Will, her discreet flirtation with Thomas Wyatt, and her hidden resentment toward her father, the King. The consequences of disobeying Henry are painfully clear, and Kat, like all women at court, is forced to yield her pride to appease him. She can do nothing else unless she wishes to lose the little safety and security she and her husband have. To her daughter, Kat makes the pitiful observation: “Sometimes it seemed that no matter what you had, or where you were born, an ordinary, stable life was only a pleasant dream.” 

No one understands this concept more than Anne Boleyn, portrayed as calculating as she is vulnerable, acutely aware that the king’s love is her only protection. Without it, Anne will find herself in the same position as her rival. And Kat sees the pitiful fall of both women; her mother dying from a broken heart in a damp castle and the wrongful execution of Anne and the men who adore her. She also sees the rise of her once friend, Jane Seymour, who is helpless to oppose her father’s ambitions and utterly terrified of her new husband: King Henry VIII. 

All around Kat are a swirl of familiar faces: Lady Willoughby, her mother’s dearest friend; Thomas Wyatt, Anne’s childhood lover and court favorite for his poetry; and Tom, her father-in-law who is weary and grey, yet gentle and kind. There are new faces too, as Anne has a daughter, Princess Elizabeth bursting into the world, the flirtatious and flattering musician, Mark Smeaton, and Kat becomes dear friends with Mistress Ashdown, or “Meady,” Jane Seymour’s former nursemaid. Kat’s relationships are at the forefront of the novel, grounding it in human emotion.  

This works in the novel’s favor as the pace moves quickly without lingering on the minutiae of court politics. Throughout The Duty of Women, Kat wrestles with the increasing burdens on her: her hidden birthright, strained marriage, and loyalty to a court forever shifting beneath her feet. While, at times, the novel leans heavily into contemporary ideals, Willcocks brings the era alive in a richly accessible way. 

This is an intimate, human portrayal of Tudor life that underscores how a single woman’s resolve can echo amid the clamor of royal ambitions—and how, sometimes, survival itself is the lasting victory.

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