Haemophilia is a problem with bleeding that’s difficult to stop. When you get a small tear in a blood vessel, from a kick or a graze, you start bleeding. If you have haemophilia, your blood won’t clot because you have a clotting factor missing. This means that your blood keeps running out of the graze, or under your skin to make a bruise. Your blood can even run into a joint, like your knee or elbow, if you knock or twist it.

For more information, have a look at the NHS Choices article on haemophilia.

Haemophilia has often been called the "Royal Disease" because several members of noble families in Europe have been affected by it. One of Queen Victoria's sons, Leopold, had haemophilia, and two of her daughters, Alice and Beatrice, carried the gene for it. Through them it was passed on to several royal families in Europe, including those in Spain and Russia.

The most famous royal with haemophilia was probably the son of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Tsarevich Alexis, who was born in 1904. It has been rumoured that his illness led to severe strain within the royal family, and enabled Rasputin to gain influence over them, ultimately leading to their downfall in the Russian revolution in 1817!

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