Meghan Markle is not the first biracial member of the British royal family, which dates back to at least two queens of African origin, according to a royal expert.
“All members of British royalty have African blood,” said Lady Colin Campbell, a Jamaican-born socialite who wrote several books on Windsors, including “People of Color and the Royals”, published in 2019.
One of the black royalty was Queen Charlotte, who is the focus of Netflix’s “Bridgerton” series, Campbell told The Post. Born in 1774, Sophia Charlotte de Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a direct descendant of Margarita de Castro Souza, a Portuguese noblewoman who drew her line to Madragana Ben Aloandro, the North African lover of King Afonso III of Portugal in the 13th century. Historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom said that Charlotte’s representation in real paintings emphasizes her African characteristics.
In addition to Charlotte, who was married to King George III, Campbell and other historians point to Philippa de Hainault, the wife and advisor of King Edward III. Philippa was of Moorish descent from North Africa, born in northern France in 1314.
“When you take this story into account, accusing the royal family of racism is absurd,” said Campbell, referring to Markle’s recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which she said she was subjected to inappropriate treatment because of her race and had suicidal thoughts. Markle also said that a member of the royal family expressed concern about the color of their baby’s skin before the birth of their son, Archie, in May 2019.
According to Campbell, there were “constant mixed marriages” between members of British and European royalty who “have a proportionally large percentage of African blood,” she said. And there was little racial prejudice until the latter part of the 17th century, when the West Indian colonies of Britain were increasingly dependent on slave labor for the cultivation of sugar cane.
“When sugar started to become more important than gold to the British community, the slaves who worked in the fields were dehumanized,” she said.
Caesar Shaw.
It has been debated whether Princess Diana’s family, the Spencers, was among the slave-owning nobility. An 18th-century portrait of ancestor John Spencer depicts him and his son, also named John – the future first Count Spencer – with a black man named Caesar Shaw crouching next to a dog. Shaw was described by historians alternately as a slave or a servant. Many Spencers are listed in a database of historic British slave owners, although it is unclear how closely related they are to Diana’s lineage.
Campbell, who appeared on British celebrity reality shows and wrote one of Princess Diana’s first biographies in 1992 (“Diana in particular”), also wrote “Meghan and Harry: the real story”. She is not a fan of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. She called Markle’s recent interview with Winfrey “the cynical ploy on behalf of a greedy woman”.
“I think Meghan Markle is … a very destructive and divisive operator who is reckless about the damage she does, as long as she achieves her goals, which are fame and fortune,” said Campbell.