THE HAGUE: King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands said Friday he was personally affected by the “explicit” conclusions of a study that said the royal family reaped huge profits from colonialism and slavery.

The five volume Leiden University study, that Willem-Alexander commissioned in 2022, concluded that for hundreds of years the ruling Orange family treated colonialism as a legitimate boon to the Netherlands.

It said the Dutch royal family made a sum equivalent to 500 million euros ($565 million) through its links to the Dutch East India Company and the country’s colonies.

The 59-year-old king called the findings “explicit and striking” as he accepted the study at the university.

He highlighted his ancestors’ lack of “counter-current leadership” in the face of colonialism.

Slavery helped finance a Dutch “Golden Age” driven by maritime trade in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Dutch empire spread over what is now Indonesia, Suriname and several Caribbean islands.

“It is a painful and confronting conclusion. A conclusion that affects me, even though I am three generations removed,” declared Willem-Alexander who in 2023 apologized for his ancestors’ lack of action against slavery.

He said the study was just the latest stage of the family’s recognition of its past and added that he was determined to pursue “healing” and “reconciliation”.

The head of the commission, historian Gert Oostindie, said the royal family provided “active and unscrupulous” support for the colonial system, including slavery.

But the researchers said the family only rarely played a key role in shaping colonial policy. The House of Orange primarily contributed to symbolically legitimizing the Dutch colonial empire for the public, they said.