Christopher Hatton | |
|---|---|
_cropped.jpg) Christopher Hatton, c. 1575 | |
| Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex | |
| In office 27 October, 1590 – 20 November, 1591 | |
| Chancellor of Oxford University | |
| In office 1588–1591 | |
| Preceded by | Sir Thomas Bromley |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Sackville, 1st Baron Buckhurst |
| Lord High Chancellor of England | |
| In office 29 April, 1587 – 22 November, 1591 | |
| Preceded by | Sir Thomas Bromley |
| Succeeded by | In Commission |
| Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire | |
| In office 1586 – 20 November, 1591 | |
| Vice-Admiral of the coast of Dorset | |
| In office 1582–1591 | |
| Preceded by | Henry Ashley |
| Succeeded by | Sir Carew Raleigh |
| Vice-Chamberlain of the Household | |
| In office 1577–1587 | |
| Preceded by | Sir Francis Knowlys |
| Succeeded by | Sir Thomas Heneage |
| Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard | |
| In office 1572–1586 | |
| Preceded by | Sir Francis Knowlys |
| Succeeded by | Sir Henry Goodere |
| Member of Parliament | |
| Constituency |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 December, 1540 |
| Died | 20 November, 1591 |
| Resting place | St Paul's Cathedral |
| Parent(s) | William Hatton (father) Alice Saunders (mother) |
| Education | Oxford University |
Sir Christopher Hatton (12 December 1540 – 20 November 1591) was an English politician,Lord Chancellor ofEngland and afavourite ofElizabeth I of England. He was one of the judges who foundMary, Queen of Scots guilty of treason.
Sir Christopher was the second son of William Hatton (died 28 August 1546)[1] ofHoldenby, Northamptonshire, and his second wife, Alice Saunders, daughter of Lawrence Saunders (died 1544) ofHarrington, Northamptonshire. His wife, Alice Brokesby was the daughter of Robert Brokesby (died 28 March 1531) of Shoby,Leicestershire, and of Alice Shirley.[2][3][4][5][a]
On his father's side, the Hatton pedigree is said to be "traced beyond records". In the reign ofHenry VII, Henry Hatton of Quisty Birches inCheshire married Elizabeth, sole heiress of William Holdenby of Holdenby, Northamptonshire. Their son, John Hatton, settled at Holdenby and had three sons, of whom Christopher Hatton's father, William, was the eldest. He is said to have had two brothers, Thomas and William, and a sister Dorothy (died 1569), who married first John Newport (died 1566) ofHunningham,Warwickshire, then William Underhill (died 1570) ofIdlicote, Warwickshire, whose son, also William Underhill (died 1597), soldNew Place toWilliam Shakespeare.[6]
In 1567, Hatton's brother Thomas married John Newport's sister, Ursula Newport.[7] However, Hatton's two brothers appear to have died relatively young and without issue. It was his sister Dorothy's sonSir William Newport who eventually became Hatton's heir, changing his name to Hatton.[8][3]
Hatton's education is said to have been supervised by his maternal uncle, William Saunders (died c. 1583). Otherwise, nothing is known of his life until he enteredSt Mary Hall, Oxford, as agentleman commoner at the age of 15 or 16.[1] He left Oxford without a degree and enrolled in theInner Temple on 26 May 1560.[2] It is not known whether he was called to the bar.[9]
In 1561, Hatton played the part of Master of the Game at amasque at the Inner Temple,[10] and on a similar occasion attracted the attention of Queen Elizabeth. Handsome and skilled, Hatton's dancing quickly won him the Queen's favour and the nickname "The Dancing Chancellor".[11][12] He came to court, according toNaunton, "by thegalliard, for he came thither as a private gentleman of theInns of Court in a masque, and for his activity and person, which was tall and proportionable, taken into the Queen's favour."[13]
In 1564, he became one of the Queen'sgentlemen pensioners and a gentleman of the privy chamber, and in July 1572 captain of the yeomen of the guard.[14][15] On 11 November 1577, he became vice-chamberlain of the royal household and was sworn into thePrivy Council. That same month he wasknighted.[16] In June 1578, the Queen formally granted him the Bishop ofEly's house inEly Place,Holborn, despite vigorous protests from the Bishop.[17] These appointments, with the valuable grants the Queen showered on him in these early years,[18] prompted rumours that he was her lover, a charge specifically made in 1584 byMary, Queen of Scots.[14][19]
There were certainly close personal relations between them. In correspondence, the Queen called him her "Lyddes". He is said to have referred to himself in at least one letter as her "sheep".[20] Yet Hatton "was probably innocent in the matter."[14]
Hatton representedHigham Ferrers in Parliament in 1571 and from May 1572 was a member forNorthamptonshire.[14][21] He was active in Parliament in prosecutions ofJohn Stubbs andWilliam Parry.[14] In 1576, he was granted land inWellingborough by the Queen.[22]
In 1581, he was one of those appointed to arrange a marriage between the Queen andFrançois, Duke of Alençon,[14] although he urged the Queen against it.
According to one account, Hatton once assured Mary, Queen of Scots he would fetch her to London if Queen Elizabeth died.[23] Whatever the truth of this, Hatton's loyalty to his sovereign seems to have remained unquestioned. On one occasion, in December 1584, he led 400 kneeling members of theHouse of Commons in a prayer for the Queen's safety.[23]
Hatton was a member of the law court that triedAnthony Babington in 1586 and one of the commissioners who found Mary, Queen of Scots, guilty of treason the following year. He vigorously denounced her in Parliament and advisedWilliam Davison to forward the warrant for her execution toFotheringhay.[23]
Hatton sent a ring with a letter toSir Thomas Smith, to be presented to Queen Elizabeth. It was to be worn at the breast, and Hatton claimed for it "the virtue to expel infectious airs, and is, as it (the letter) telleth me, to be worn between the sweet duggs, the chaste nest of pure constancy."[24]Sir Robert Cecil reported in August 1591 that the queen, who was at Portsmouth, wore a jewel in the form of bagpipes on her ruff that Hatton had sent her. The device alluded to shepherds and her nickname for him, "her mutton".[25]
In 1587 Hatton becameLord Chancellor. Though he had no great knowledge of the law, he appears to have acted with sense and judgement. He was said to have been aRoman Catholic in all but name, but treated religious questions in a moderate and tolerant way.[23]
Hatton was chancellor of theUniversity of Oxford. He is reported to have been parsimonious, but he patronized men of letters andEdmund Spenser was among his friends. He wrote the fourth act of a tragedy,Tancred and Gismund. His death occasioned severalpanegyrics in prose and verse.[23]
Hatton became wealthy through his progressing career and the Queen's fondness for him, and in 1583 he embarked on building at Holdenby, Northamptonshire, what was to be the largest privately owned Elizabethan house in England. It had 123 huge glass windows at a time when glass was very expensive – window numbers became a way to show wealth. It had two great courts and was as large asHampton Court palace. It was three storeys high and had two large state rooms, one for himself and another for the Queen, should she ever stay, which she never did.
Lord Burghley, visiting the house in his old age, was impressed with the grand staircase from the hall to the state rooms and proclaimed the house so faultless he forgot the "infirmity of his legs" whilst he walked around. No expense was spared. Hatton even paid to move a village because it spoiled the view from one of his windows. However, the cost of the house drained his purse, so that Hatton was short of money for the rest of his life. No stranger to the financial strain of building, Burghley wrote to Hatton: "God send us both long to enjoy her, for whom we both meant to exceed our purses in these."
To maintain his dwindling wealth, Hatton began investing in some voyages ofFrancis Drake, including Drake's acts of piracy in Spanish America. During Drake's subsequentcircumnavigation of the globe, when he reached theStraits of Magellan, he renamed his shipThe Golden Hind in honour of Hatton's coat of arms, which contained a golden hind, and of all theSpanish gold on board. Hatton made a profit of £2300 from this expedition.
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Despite his successes, Hatton died with large debts a few years after his Holdenby mansion was completed in 1583. Hatton claimed to refuse to sleep there untilQueen Elizabeth I would do so.[26] The remains of the originalHoldenby House are a room incorporated into a replacement building in the 1870s; part of the pillared doorway contains two arches, inscribed with the date 1583 in the gardens, as well as drawings and plans.[27] He had begun to build his other country house,Kirby Hall, in 1570. It was based on French architectural designs and expanded inClassical style over the decades.
Hatton's health declined in 1591. The Queen visited him on 11 November. Nine days later he died at Ely Place and was given a state funeral atSt Paul's Cathedral on 16 December.[2] A grand monument to him stood at the high altar of Old St Paul's, "towering above it – an outrage to the susceptibilities of the devout but an object of marvel to London sightseers – until theGreat Fire of 1666 dethroned and destroyed it."[28][29] Hatton is listed on a modern monument in the crypt as one of the important graves lost.
Although he seems to have had an illegitimate daughter, Hatton never married, and his large and valuable estates descended to his nephew,Sir William Newport (1560–1597), son of his sister Dorothy Hatton, who took the surname Hatton.[23] When the latter died without male issue in 1597, the estates passed to Sir Christopher Hatton's first cousin once removed andnamesake godson, another SirChristopher Hatton (died 1619), whose son and successor,Christopher becameBaron Hatton of Kirby and his sonChristopher became Viscount Hatton.[23] This line still continues with theFinch-Hattons.
Hatton Garden, heart of the UK's trade in cutdiamonds, stands on the site of Hatton's London home and grounds.Sir Christopher Hatton Academy was founded in 1983 inWellingborough,Northamptonshire.
In the 2007 filmElizabeth: The Golden Age, Sir Christopher Hatton is portrayed byLaurence Fox.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hatton, Sir Christopher".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 63–64.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| Political offices | ||
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| Unknown | Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire 1576–1591 | Vacant Title next held by The Lord Burghley |
| Preceded by | Vice-Admiral of Dorset 1582–1591 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard 1578–1587 | Succeeded by Henry Goodier |
| Preceded by | Lord Chancellor 1587–1591 | Succeeded by In Commission |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the University of Oxford 1588–1591 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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