As Charles backs study into historic connections to slave trade…The Royal Family is hit by new payout demands over their links by Caribbean campaigners who say the Monarchy ‘must make repair and atonement’ for their involvement
- Research is expected to analyse previous rulers’ involvement with slave-trading
- This includes Royal African Company and its deputy governor Edward Colston
King Charles’s backing for research into links between the monarchy and slavery risks fuelling calls for Britain to pay compensation, critics warned last night.
Buckingham Palace yesterday announced it was cooperating with a landmark study into the monarchy’s involvement with the transatlantic slave trade and said the King took the issue ‘profoundly seriously’.
The research is expected to analyse previous rulers’ involvement with slave-trading companies, including the Royal African Company and its deputy governor, Edward Colston, whose statue was thrown into Bristol Harbour by anti-racism protesters.
Charles’s support for the academic work, carried out by the University of Manchester with Historic Royal Palaces, was welcomed by researchers and campaigners. But others voiced fears it could open the door to the Royal Family and the Government facing demands to pay compensation, or reparations, for their role in the slave trade and colonialism.
Buckingham Palace yesterday announced it was cooperating with a landmark study into the monarchy’s involvement with the transatlantic slave trade and said the King took the issue ‘profoundly seriously’ (The King and Queen are pictured last month)
The research is expected to analyse previous rulers’ involvement with slave-trading companies, including the Royal African Company and its deputy governor, Edward Colston, whose statue was thrown into Bristol Harbour by anti-racism protesters (pictured as it happened in June 2020)
In the past, there have been calls for the Royal Family to pay compensation on the grounds that previous generations of the monarchy profited from the slave trade. Britain’s leading black newspaper, The Voice, last year called for the Royal Family to apologise and pay slavery reparations after a backlash from readers over its decision to let Charles ‘guest edit’ an edition.
Last night, there were immediate calls from Caribbean campaigners for new talks about reparations. Arley Gill, of the National Reparations Commission of Grenada, said: ‘The Royal Family must make repair and atonement for the people and societies that would have suffered because of their involvement in the slave trade. Reparations now cannot be a subject that can be swept under the royal rug of the Royal Household.’
But former Tory MP Harvey Proctor called for any reparations to be paid by Charles personally, and not by the state.
He said: ‘Payment of any reparations must not come from the state. Otherwise, we should sue the French for the damage caused by the Norman Conquest in 1066 and similar to the USA for the price of the tea lost in Boston Harbour.’
Historian Rafe Heydel-Mankoo told GB News: ‘Only 3 per cent of the British economy in around 1770 had any relation to the slave trade. So this myth that we hear a lot in this country now that the Empire, the Industrial Revolution, and the monarchy’s wealth was built on slavery is absolute nonsense.’
Fellow historian Andrew Roberts said the Royal Family was descended from the Hanoverians, who ruled from 1714, and should not be blamed for the actions of previous dynasties. He added: ‘There is no justification for blaming Charles III for the actions of Charles II.’
It is understood to be the first time the Palace has publicly stated that it supports research into the monarchy’s historical links to the vile trade.
The Palace said it was granting researchers full access to the Royal Archives and the Royal Collection as part of a detailed study which is expected to run until 2026.
A spokesman said the King wanted to continue his pledge to deepen his understanding of slavery’s impact with ‘vigour and determination’.
They added: ‘This is an issue that His Majesty takes profoundly seriously.’ Suggestions that the King might be willing to pay reparations or make a donation to charity were described by royal sources last night as ‘utterly speculative’.
They also emphasised that the project was being undertaken by the charity Historic Royal Palaces, as opposed to the King personally, and was designed to ‘deepen understanding’ of the issue.
The study is being led by Manchester University PhD student Camilla de Koning, who said previous monarchs had been ‘diplomatic players’ who had influenced the transatlantic slave trade.
She told Radio 4’s World At One: ‘I hope it will become a very important new perspective on how the monarchs were actually involved with the colonial empire.’
Charles’s support for the academic work, carried out by the University of Manchester with Historic Royal Palaces, was welcomed by researchers and campaigners. But others voiced fears it could open the door to the Royal Family and the Government facing demands to pay compensation, or reparations, for their role in the slave trade and colonialism
Dr Edmond Smith, who is supervising the study, said the project would not consider the controversial topic of compensation for those affected, but could affect future discussions about reparation.
The study began without fanfare in October and came to light only after the emergence of a document which showed a transfer of £1,000 of shares in the Royal African Company from Colston to King William III in 1689. The company shipped up to 150,000 enslaved people from Africa to America and the Caribbean.
The document, published by The Guardian, was unearthed by US historian Dr Brooke Newman.
She said: ‘There is no doubt that the centuries of investment in African slavery, and the slave trade, contributed hugely to building the status, prestige and fortune of today’s Royal Family.’
Eric Phillips, of the Caricom Reparations Commission, which represents Caribbean nations where European powers enslaved people to work on plantations, said: ‘King Charles knows enough to apologise, and should.’
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