KING BACKS ROYALS’ SLAVERY LINKS PROBE
THE King has expressed his support for the first time for research into historical links between the monarchy and the transatlantic slave trade.
Buckingham Palace said Charles takes the issue “profoundly seriously”.
It added the Royal Household will help the study by offering access to the Royal Collection and the Royal Archives.
The independent research – a PhD project by historian Camilla de Koning at Manchester University – will look at the monarchy’s involvement in the slave trade and engagement with the Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The study is co-sponsored by the Historic Royal Palaces charity and is set to conclude in 2026.
Buckingham Palace’s statement was issued in response to a probe by The Guardian, which has published a previously unseen document showing the transfer in the 1680s of £1,000 of shares in the slave-trading Royal African Company to William III from slave trader Edward Colston, the company’s deputy governor.
The Palace said that since Charles became King he has proceeded with “vigour and determination” to deepen his understanding of slavery’s impact.
Before his reign, he spoke about slavery in a speech last June at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, saying: “I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many.” But there was no apology for the Royal Family’s historical involvement in transporting and selling people.
For centuries, monarchs and other royals supported the trade or made money from it.
Historic Royal Palaces, which runs unoccupied sites such as Hampton Court Palace, said the research will “examine the royal role in empire and look at how the Royal Family, as individuals, understood their place within it”.