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April 6 (UPI) -- Britain's King Charles III for the first time indicated support for researching royal family links to slavery after a 1689 document revealed King William III had a financial investment in a slave-trading company. Buckingham Palace issued a statement to The Guardian after it published the document showing the transfer of $1,242 of shares in the Royal African slave-trading company to William.
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"This is an issue that His Majesty takes profoundly seriously," a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said. "As His Majesty told the Commonwealth heads of government reception in Rwanda last year: 'I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many, as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slavery's enduring impact.'"
The document which shows the company shares were transferred from Edward Colston, a slave trader and the company's deputy governor, to William had not been previously made public.
A protester who shouted "this country was built on the blood of slaves" threw eggs at Charles in York in November of 2022.
The Buckingham Palace statement said the royal family is cooperating with an independent research study on the British monarchy's relationship to the slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. Researchers are getting full access to Royal Archives.
The project is run by PhD historian Camilla de Koning and co-sponsored by Historic Royal Palaces. It's expected to conclude in 2026.
"It seems like they are just stamping decrees, but they are actually very involved as diplomatic players," De Koning told the BBC. "I'm hoping to change that perspective, that you can see there are way more links between the colonial and the monarch than ever have been investigated, or have ever been noticed, so we can flip that around."
A Sky News documentary in 2022 explored the British royal family's involvement in the slave trade.
Virginia Commonwealth University historian Dr. Brooke Newman was featured in that documentary.
She told Sky News, "The royal family's links to slavery began during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The Crown -- and the royal family -- was deeply involved in the slave trade and making money off the slave trade."
Dr. Newman told The Guardian that there is no doubt that centuries of investment in African slavery and the slave trade "generated vast further wealth for Britain and its royal families."
