King Charles backs probe into British monarchy’s slavery links
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Britain’s King Charles and Camilla, Queen Consort, at the Maundy Thursday Service at York Minster, in York.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON – Britain’s King Charles III is supporting research into the historical links between the monarchy and the transatlantic slave trade, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday.
A month ahead of his coronation, the Palace said academics will gain greater access to royal archives, and that King Charles takes the issue “profoundly seriously”.
King Charles’ 17th century predecessor King James II was the largest investor in the Royal African Company, which became a brutal pioneer of the transatlantic slave trade.
In 2022, then Prince Charles told a meeting of Commonwealth leaders that in order to “unlock the power of our common future, we must also acknowledge the wrongs which have shaped our past”.
But there was no apology from the then heir to the throne for the royal family’s involvement in the transportation and selling of people for profit.
A royal spokesman said since inheriting the throne from Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles had continued his pledge to deepen his understanding of slavery’s impact with “vigour and determination”.
King James II, who was deposed in 1688, was not the only one of King Charles’ forebears who was complicit in the slave trade.
In 1689, according to a previously unseen document published by The Guardian newspaper, Royal African Company shares worth £1,000 (S$1,650) were transferred to King William III from slave trader Edward Colston.
Colston became the centre of fierce controversy in June 2020, when protesters in the western city of Bristol toppled his statue.
King Charles is due to be crowned at Westminster Abbey on May 6.
Two invitees who have yet to confirm their attendance are his younger son Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
In 2021, the couple accused the royal family of racism in an interview with chat show host Oprah Winfrey after they quit their royal duties.
Prince Harry’s brother Prince William furiously responded: “We are very much not a racist family.” AFP
