An interesting feature of the arms....

An interesting feature of the arms granted to the Hudson Bay Company is a Cap of Maintenance. It used to be reserved for barons in the days of feudal tenure.

I could not find an explanation for it, but I postulate that it had to do with the fact that the Company was in charge of large parts of (mostly unsettled) Canada at the time. I suppose that this situation made it a tenant in capite of Crown land.

http://reg.gg.ca/heraldry/pub-reg/project-pic.asp?lang=e&ProjectID=2871&ProjectElementID=10112

Hudson's Bay Company [Civil Institution]