Haemophilia in European Royalty - Today - Ferdinand Soltmann

Ferdinand Soltmann

At least one modern descendant of Queen Victoria has been diagnosed with haemophilia: Ferdinand Soltmann, the son of Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe-Langenberg, born 2005. Xenia is a male-line descendant of Victoria, but the disease did not come from Xenia's maternal family, the Croÿs. If the disease came from Xenia, there are two possibilities. The first possibility is that it would have had to be inherited from her father, Kraft, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenberg, a descendant of Victoria through the female line. Kraft had some clotting issues, which led the family to believe he may have been a mild haemophiliac. If Kraft was a haemophiliac, then his daughters Xenia and Cécile were definitely carriers. The second possibility is that Xenia or Ferdinand had a spontaneous mutation, as Victoria herself apparently had.

Xenia is descended from Victoria in two different lines, through Victoria's children Princess Alice of the United Kingdom and Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Alfred was not a haemophiliac, but Alice was a carrier, and her line of descent to Xenia, and subsequently, Ferdinand, is as follows.