title: The Duchess of Windsor
author:  Michael Bloch 
description: This is a highly sympathetic biography of Wallis Warfield (1896-1986), the American woman for whom, in 1936, Edward VIII gave up the English throne, thus becoming the Duke of Windsor. Bloch (Wallis and Edward-Letters, 1931-37), who was one of the Duchess's legal representatives before her death, quotes at length from her letters and covers information published elsewhere, including the story of Wallis's first two marriages and her love affair with Edward. He details how the hostility of the duke's brother and successor, George VI, and his wife to the Windsors resulted in their self-imposed exile from England. Bloch, however, does make the startling claim, based on little evidence, that Wallis remained a virgin until her death. He theorizes that, because of her masculine appearance, she may not have had a distinct gender at birth. Bloch glosses over the Windsors' sympathy for Hitler and maintains that they were "moderately" rather than "extremely" rich. Photos include some previously unpublished. <br />Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  PROLOGUE
  
  THE PARLIAMENT
  
  
  OF CATS  
  
  
    
  
  THE DUCHY of Swansgaarde nestled in a tiny valley in the Borogny Mountains.
  South lay Turkey, north lay Poland. To the east was Rossiyskaya Imperiya—the
  Russian Empire—and to the west, the mighty and far-reaching Cisleithanian
  Empire. To be Swansgaardian, as Duke Rupert often said, was to be a mouse at a
  parliament of cats, for any of her large and powerful neighbors might at any
  moment take it into their heads to snap up such a tempting morsel.
  
  But so far, Swansgaarde had escaped such a fate. Duke Rupert and Duchess
  Yetive had ruled Swansgaarde peacefully for many years. They were blessed with
  twelve beautiful daughters—and one son. Prince Dantan had been a happy
  surprise, for under the laws of inheritance, the throne of Swansgaarde could
  not pass to a daughter, only to a son—and before Dantan’s birth the heir
  presumptive had been Duke Rupert’s great-nephew Rudolf, who had never been
  east of Vinarborg in his l