Rupert's Land

The name applied to the territories of the Hudson's Bay Company, particularly to that portion lying west of Hudson Bay and east of the Rocky Mountains. The Company held these lands under royal charter granted by Charles II in 1670. The first governor of the Company was Prince Rupert, after whom the territories were named. The Company's title was repeatedly challenged, but its validity was always upheld by the law officers of the crown. In 1869 the territories were transferred to Canada, for the sum of £300,000, the company retaining certain blocks of land around their trading-posts and one-twentieth of the arable land of the country. See also Hudson's Bay Company; North-West Territories.