TORONTO — You would think that Prince Hermann Friedrich of Leiningen, the great-great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria would exude an air of grandeur.

You wouldn't imagine him sporting a crown. The royals don't do that very often these days. But you would probably not expect to see someone of this lineage wearing a kippah.

Not only did Prince Hermann, 51, don a kippah, but he defied expectations of royalty with his humble manner and  self-effacing humour when he spoke at Congregation Habonim on Dec. 4 about his grandfather, Tsar Boris III.

The Bulgarian king is credited with saving 50,000 Bulgarian Jews from the Nazis  death camps during World War II.

About 110 people came out to learn more about the Bulgarian Jewish community and their king from the Canadian-born prince, a Bay Street banker and father of three, who lives quietly in Oakville and goes by the name Hermann F. Leiningen.

He was born about 20 years after his grandfather's mysterious death in 1943, which occurred 10 days after his grandfather’s meeting with Adolf Hitler. Leiningen said people suspected that Boris III was poisoned, because  he had many enemies.

Leiningen said the Germans were unhappy that the king would not deport the Jews and the Russians, who continued  to maintain an embassy despite being at war with Bulgaria. They may also targeted the monarch because his country was allied with Germany.

There is  also some speculation that his grandmother's sister, an Italian royal, may have had a hand in his grandfather's death.

He described Tsar Boris III as both a man of peace and an enlightened despot. He surrounded himself with loyal and obedient ministers and a rubber-stamp national assembly. “Very few people stood up to him… My grandfather ruled as a dictator. He was an absolute monarch.”

Leiningen said his loose alignment with Germany enabled him to maintain control of Bulgaria.  “He pursued policies that were best for the country.”

The king faced some difficult political challenges, but managed to straddle the competing allegiances of pro-Nazi ministers and a pro-Russian people, he said.  “Although he had a pro-German government, the palace was able to say 'no' to every demand of Germany.”

His grandfather resisted pressure from Germany to attack Russia and to deport the Jews.

“The strategic loose alliance prevented a rollover of German troops. Otherwise it would have been impossible to help save the Jews… Not one Jewish citizen was deported.”

In fact, Leiningen noted that there were more Jews in Bulgaria at the end of the war than at the beginning. “There were 48,000 at the start of the war and 50,000 at the end.”

He described Bulgaria as a tolerant place, where Jews, Christians and Moslems lived in harmony. “There was no anti-Semitism. Jews were in the armed forces, at universities, and they served as ministers in the government.”

He said his grandfather stopped the Nazi deportation trains and put Jews in labour camps to work on the roads in Bulgaria. “He told the Germans their work would benefit the Third Reich.”

Although King Boris received many posthumous awards, he was never honoured by Yad Vashem, because there is a blight on his record.

After participating in the Serbian campaign with Germany, Bulgaria was awarded control of territories in Serbia, Greece and Macedonia.

Under pressure from Germany, Bulgaria eventually deported the 11,000 plus  Jews living in those occupied territories,  says Leiningen, explaining that his grandfather could not save them, because these Jews were not Bulgarian citizens.

Russia occupied Bulgaria in 1944, and while the Bulgarian Jews managed to survive the war, the majority immigrated to Israel. The royal family was exiled and moved to Portugal, a country that became home to many of the exiled royal families  of Europe, according to Leiningen.

His family arrived in Canada in 1957. He says his mother advised him to keep his royal identity under wraps. For the most part, few people knew of his lineage.

A few years ago he was outed by People magazine in a story about the 100 people in line for the British thrown. “A friend said, 'Did you know there's a prince with your name who's 97th in line for the throne?'”

“Now I'm 145th. When someone dies I move up. When someone is born I move down.”

His great- great-grandfather, Prince Alfred, the son of Queen Victoria, was the brother of King Edward VII, her oldest son and Prince Charles' great- great-grandfather.

He joked: “If Alfred had been king, I'd be in Buckingham Palace and Prince Charles would be here tonight.”