The king of the Netherlands is expected to apologise for slavery and colonialism after research found that the Dutch royal house earned the equivalent of more than £800million from the trade and the conquest of subjugated regions. 

King Willem-Alexander is expected to make a formal apology on July 1, when the country will mark the 160th anniversary of the end of slavery on what is known as Keti Koti, or Emancipation Day. 

The Princes of Orange, including William III, who became the King of England, helped to establish a policy of exploitation, slavery and forced labour in Asia and the Caribbean, according to a study commissioned by the Dutch government. 

The new study, titled ‘State and Slavery’, was presented to MPs last week. It found that the House of Orange earned the equivalent of €1billion (£853million) in today’s money during the Dutch slave trade and the era of colonialism. 

It comes after King Charles backed a landmark UK study into the monarchy’s involvement in the slave trade.

The research is expected to analyse previous rulers’ involvement with slave-trading entities, including the Royal African Company and its deputy governor, Edward Colston, iconwin whose statue was thrown into Bristol Harbour by anti-racism protesters in 2020. 

The king of the Netherlands is expected to apologise for slavery and colonialism after research found that the Dutch royal house earned the equivalent of more than £800million from the trade and the conquest of subjugated regions. King Willem-Alexander (pictured above with his wife Queen Maxima) is expected to make a formal apology on July 1

Hanke Bruins Slot, the Dutch home affairs minister, said the findings of the new study presented a ‘confrontational and very painful picture’ of the early Dutch state’s involvement in an ‘unprecedented scale of slave trade and slavery’, according to The Times.