With the coronation of Britain’s King Charles III days away, new evidence has surfaced that directly links him to an ancestor who owned African slaves in the United States.

The Guardian reports that it obtained documents showing that the king’s ancestor Edward Porteus was involved in buying at least 200 shackled Africans from the Royal African Company in 1686. The enslaved people were taken to a Virginia tobacco plantation.

Researcher Desirée Baptiste unearthed the documents while looking into links between the Church of England and Virginia slaveholders for a play she has written.

A slave ship named the Speedwell took 217 Africans from the present-day African country of Gambia and transported 192 of them to Porteus and two other men in Maryland, according to TIME magazine, citing data from SlaveVoyages, an online database of ships involved in the transatlantic slave trade.

Generations later, Porteus’ descendants married into the present-day royal family.

Porteus’ son, Robert Porteus, inherited his father’s estate and some of the slaves, and moved his family to England in 1720. Robert’s great-great-great-granddaughter, Frances Smith, married British aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon. Smith and Bowes-Lyon’s granddaughter, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, married King George VI – the present monarch King Charles III’s grandparents.

The king previously expressed “personal sorrow” for the suffering caused by the slave trade.

But a palace spokesperson declined to answer The Guardian’s inquiries about the royal family’s connection to the Virginia plantation until after King Charles’ coronation, slated for May 6.

This latest revelation follows a Guardian newspaper probe published April 6 that found a previously unseen document that shows infamous slave trader Edward Colston transferring Royal African Company shares to King William III in 1689.

Speaking at the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the then-Prince Charles reflected on the slave trade to the leaders of Britain’s former colonies.

“While we strive together for peace, prosperity and democracy I want to acknowledge that the roots of our contemporary association run deep into the most painful period of our history. 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,” he told the delegates, according to CNN.

On Saturday (May 6), the United Kingdom will celebrate Charles’ coronation as King, the first held in nearly 70 years when his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II was crowned.