Meghan Markle is not the first biracial member of the British royal family

Meghan Markle is not the first biracial member of the British royal family, who traces her lineage back to at least two queens of African descent, according to a royal expert.

“All members of the British Royal Family have African blood,” said Lady Colin Campbell, a Jamaican-born socialite who has written numerous books on the Windsors, including “People of Color and the Royals,” published in 2019. .

A black royal was Queen Charlotte, who is at the center of the Netflix series “Bridgerton,” Campbell told the Post. Born in 1774, Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a direct descendant of Margarita de Castro Souza, a Portuguese nobleman who traced her lineage to Madragana Ben Aloandro, the North African mistress of King Afonso III of Portugal in the 13th century. Historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom said that the depiction of Charlotte in royal paintings underlines her African features.

In addition to Charlotte, who was married to King George III, Campbell and other historians nominate Philippa of Hainaut, wife and advisor to King Edward III. Philippa was of Moorish descent from North Africa, born in northern France in 1314.

“When you take this story into consideration, accusing the Royal Family of racism is absurd,” said Campbell, referring to Markle’s recent interview with Oprah Winfrey in which she claimed to have been abused because of her race and having thoughts. suicidal. Markle also said that a member of the royal family had expressed concerns about the color of her baby’s skin before the birth of her son, Archie, in May 2019.

According to Campbell, there were “constant intermarriages” among members of the British and European royals who have “a proportionately high percentage of African blood,” she said. And there was little racial prejudice until the late 17th century, when the British West Indian colonies increasingly relied 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.

It has been debated whether Princess Diana’s family, the Spencers, were part of the slave-owning nobility. An 18th-century portrait of ancestor John Spencer depicts him and his son, also named John – the future first Earl Spencer – with a black man named Caesar Shaw crouching near a dog. Shaw has been described alternately by historians as a slave or a servant. Many Spencers are listed in a database of historical British slave owners, although it is not clear how closely they are related to Diana’s lineage.

Campbell, who appeared on British celebrity reality TV shows and wrote one of Princess Diana’s earliest biographies in 1992 (“Diana in Private”), 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 a “cynical ploy in the name of a greedy woman.”

“I think Meghan Markle is… a very destructive and divisive operator who is reckless of the damage she does as long as she achieves her goals, which are fame and fortune,” Campbell said.