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From the Preface... The Queen has not waited until she becomes a widow to share real power with her son. Over the past few years, Elizabeth II has shifted more and more of the monarch’s burden to the Prince of Wales, and has made it clear that, in the event that she becomes physically or mentally incapacitated, she wants Charles to wield all the authority of the sovereign as Regent. In the meantime, the Black Queen and the White Queen will continue to be the most dynamic pieces on the royal chess board. Whatever the outcome of this contest, the next Queen of England will be a commoner--the first since Anne Hyde married the future James II in 1659. But in Camilla’s case, that is merely a technicality. Although she had no title, the Duchess of Cornwall was always a bona fide aristocrat--a direct descendant of William the Conqueror and the granddaughter of a baron. Kate, however, could someday lay claim to being England’s first true commoner queen, in the modern sense of the word. A descendant of coal miners and the daughter of a former flight attendant, the Duchess of Cambridge is in truth destined to become the first working-class queen. Ironically, she will also be the first college-educated queen. The House of Windsor is, as Winston Churchill famously described Russia, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. And if the past is any indication, scandal, joy, drama, tragedy, history, triumph, and betrayal will all play their part--as they have for more than a millennium--in the Game of Crowns.