A 355-year-old Royal Charter linked to the founding of the Hudson’s Bay Company has been sold for C$18 million ($13 million) to two prominent Canadian families, ensuring the document remains in the country.
The charter, issued in 1670 by King Charles II, granted the Hudson’s Bay Company sweeping authority over vast areas of what is now Canada.
It allowed the company to create laws, establish colonies and negotiate treaties as it became a major force in the fur trade and, later, a well-known retail chain.
Historians say the document also underpinned the company’s sale of its territorial holdings to Canada in 1869, a transfer made without the consent of indigenous peoples living on the land.
The sale comes after the Hudson’s Bay Company filed for bankruptcy last summer, prompting concerns that the historic charter might be sold abroad as part of the liquidation of corporate assets.
The winning bid was made by DKRT Family Corp, controlled by Thomson Reuters chairman David Thomson, and Wittington Investments Ltd, owned by the Weston family.
Under the agreement, the document will be jointly held by the Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History and the Royal Ontario Museum.
The bid also includes a C$5 million donation to support the institutions that will care for and interpret the charter. The Hudson’s Bay Company said the custodians will work with indigenous communities to ensure the charter’s history is presented in full.
The charter has survived several relocations, including being stored at Windsor Castle, moved to the company’s London headquarters, and hidden at a Hertfordshire estate during the Second World War to protect it from the Blitz.
It was brought to the company’s Toronto headquarters in the 1970s, where it remained until the bankruptcy proceedings.
A court must still approve the sale, but historians say the move reflects sustained public pressure to keep the document accessible in Canada.
Cody Groat, a history and indigenous studies professor at Western University, said the charter enabled the Hudson’s Bay Company to function both as a commercial entity and a governing authority in its early years.
Offers from wealthy families and corporations increased in recent months, he said, as efforts grew to ensure the document would be preserved in the public domain.