A Buckingham Palace spokesman said Thursday that King Charles III had signaled his support for research into the British monarchy’s links to slavery for the first time after a document showed an ancestor owned shares in a slave trading company.
The palace said Charles took the case “deeply seriously” and that scholars would be given access to the royal collection and archives.
The statement came in response to an article in the Guardian which unveiled a document showing that the lieutenant governor of the Royal African Slave Trading Company transferred £1,000 of shares in the company to King William III in 1689.
The newspaper reported that the document was part of a series of stories about royal wealth and finance, and the monarchy’s connection to slavery.
Prince Harry wrote in his recent memoir Spear that the monarchy relies on the wealth generated by “exploiters, tyrants, annexations and enslavement”.
Also, read; Lance Reddick’s Lawyer Disputes Actor’s Cause of Death
Esther Stanford Causey, a lawyer and reparations expert, told CBS News in January that she believes the British monarchy is “heavily involved in the financing of slavery,” including slave traders’ travel between Africa, Europe, and the Americas.
Stanford Exusi stated that James II, Duke of York in the 17th century, was the ruler of the Royal African Company which was involved in transporting enslaved Africans.
“They also found ways to brand Africans with the Duke of York’s ‘DY’ inscription,” said Stanford Exuse.
Charles and his eldest son, Prince William, deplored slavery but failed to recognize the Crown’s ties to trade.
In March 2022, during a visit to Jamaica, protesters met with Prince William and Kate, Princess of Wales, and demanded an apology for the monarchy’s role in slavery and demanded reparations from the UK.
