Charles III in uniform, 2022 Source: Getty Images British King Charles III. wants to support historical research into the connection between the British monarchy and the international slave trade, according to Buckingham Palace in London.
Scientists would have greater access to the British Crown’s archives than before, the palace said on Thursday. Charles takes the issue “extremely seriously”.
British kings invested in slavery
Among other things, by the end of the 17th century, under the British King James II, the crown had invested heavily in the slave trade. Charles has worked with “vigor and determination” to gain a deeper understanding of the effects of slavery since he inherited the throne from his mother, Elizabeth II, who died in September, a royal spokesman said.
During his visit to Germany at the end of March, King Charles III. also in the Bundestag.
03/30/2023 | 133:55 minutes
In June 2022, while still a prince, Charles addressed the royal family’s historic links to slavery at a meeting of Commonwealth leaders.
On the occasion, he said that in order to develop the strength of the “common future” of the confederation of states, it is also necessary to recognize the “injustice” that “shaped our past”.
Apology from the royal family is still missing today
The then prince meant not only the heads of state and government of the Commonwealth, who emerged from the former colonies of the British Empire, but also his own family:
We too must find new ways to acknowledge our past.
Charles III in June 2022
However, the then heir to the throne has not apologized for the British royal family’s involvement in the slave trade.
Actual admission may lead to claims for damages
A year earlier, at the celebrations for the founding of the republic in Barbados, Charles had described slavery as “a hideous cruelty which forever stains our history”. But still he didn’t offer a word of apology. Prince William and Princess Kate behaved similarly during their Caribbean trip last year.
Hollywood star Samuel L. Jackson, along with journalists Afua Hirsch and Simcha Jacobovici, examine how the transatlantic slave trade became the engine of the global economy.
12/10/2022 | 56:16 minutes
“The royal family does not apologize,” commented Philip Murphy, head of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London, Williams’ statement in an interview with the German Press Agency.
The royal family’s wording was chosen very carefully so as not to open the door to damage claims, Murphy said.
Charles’s offensive to save the Commonwealth?
Charles now seems advised to go on the offensive. Because some members of the Commonwealth are struggling to break with the British Crown and want to declare themselves republics, as Barbados recently did.
Voices of detachment from the crown are becoming ever louder, especially in the Caribbean, where hundreds of thousands of people who were kidnapped from Africa have had to work as slaves on sugar plantations under British colonial rule.
The Caribbean was once a hub for the slave trade. Now the Dutch king travels to the former colonies to meet the descendants of slaves.
01.02.2023 | 06:52 minutes
Slaveholders compensated by the British state
Britain boasts of having abolished slavery in 1834. What is often not mentioned, however, is that this was accompanied by huge compensations to slave owners, which the country paid until 2015. Former slaves and their descendants have not received any compensation to date.
Documents in the royal archives could reveal other explosive facts about the royal family’s past links to slavery: according to a document published by The Guardian newspaper, in 1689 the notorious slave trader Edward Colston transferred £1,000 worth of shares to the Jacob’s successor, Wilhelm III.