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Hermann Leiningen had a “simple” childhood growing up in Toronto in the 1960s. He went to French school, babysat to earn pocket money, played road hockey and loved the Toronto Maple Leafs completely, with a devotion to player statistics that, perhaps, foreshadowed his career in high finance.

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Summers were different.

Summers meant Portugal and staying with his Nonna at her “big house.” There were trips to the beach with nannies, who would forget to put sunscreen on Hermann and his cousins, and where the adults could ignore the children and catch up on the family gossip: Who was living where, and marrying or divorcing whom. Who was sick or having babies, or going broke, and other scuttlebutt that Uncle Vladi, Uncle Beppo, Uncle Juanito and Uncle Simeon and Aunt Margarita might enjoy, but that young Hermann didn’t pay attention to.

“I didn’t even really know my family story until I got interested in the history in my teens,” Mr. Leiningen says. “None of my friends knew. I mean, I was told that I was born 50th in line to the British throne — but it didn’t mean anything to me.”

Hermann Leiningen, who these days commutes to Bay Street from Toronto’s western suburbs at 6 a.m., is the great-great-great grandson of Queen Victoria.