SIR CHRISTOPHER HATTON, Lord Chancellor of England and favourite of Queen Elizabeth,
was a son of William Hatton (d.1546) of Holdenby, Northamptonshire, and was educated at St Mary Hall, Oxford. A handsome and accomplished man, being
especially distinguished for his elegant dancing, he soon attracted the notice of Queen Elizabeth, became one of her gentlemen pensioners in 1564,
and captain of her bodyguard in 1572.
He received numerous estates and many positions of trust and profit from the Queen, and suspicion was not slow to assert that he was Elizabeth's lover,
a charge which was definitely made by Mary Queen of Scots in 1584. Hatton, who was probably innocent in this matter,
had been made Vice-Chamberlain of the royal household and a member of the Privy Council in 1578, and had been a Member of Parliament since 1571, first
representing the borough of Higham Ferrers and afterwards the county of Northampton. In 1578 he was knighted, and was now regarded as the Queen's
spokesman in the House of Commons, being an active agent in the prosecutions of John Stubbs and William Parry. He was one of those who were appointed
to arrange a marriage between Elizabeth and Francis, duke of Alençon, in 1581; was a member of the court which tried
Anthony Babington in 1586; and was one of the commissioners who found Mary Queen of Scots guilty.
He besought Elizabeth not to marry the French prince; and according to one account repeatedly assured Mary that he would fetch her to London if the
English queen died. Whether or no this story be true, Hatton's loyalty was not questioned; and he was the foremost figure in that striking scene in
the House of Commons in December 1584, when four hundred kneeling members repeated after him a prayer for Elizabeth's safety. Having been the constant
recipient of substantial marks of the Queen's favour, he vigorously denounced Mary Stuart in parliament, and advised William Davison to forward the
warrant for her execution to Fotheringay. In the same year (1587) Hatton was made Lord Chancellor, and although he had no great knowledge of the law,
he appears to have acted with sound sense and good judgment in his new position. He is said to have been a Roman Catholic in all but name, yet he
treated religious questions in a moderate and tolerant way. He died in London on the 20th of November 1591, and was buried in St Paul's cathedral.
Although mention has been made of a secret marriage, Hatton appears to have remained single, and his large and valuable estates descended to his nephew,
Sir William Newport, who took the name of Hatton. Sir Christopher was a knight of the Garter and chancellor of the university of Oxford. Elizabeth
frequently showed her affection for her favourite in an extravagant and ostentatious manner. She called him her mouton, and forced the Bishop of
Ely to give him the freehold of Ely Place, Holborn, which became his residence, his name being perpetuated in the neighbouring Hatton Garden. Hatton is
reported to have been a very mean [i.e. stingy] man, but he patronized men of letters, and among his friends was
Edmund Spenser. He wrote the fourth act of a tragedy, Tancred and Gismund, and his
death occasioned several panegyrics in both prose and verse.
Excerpted from:
Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Ed. Vol XIII.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910. 64.
Other Local Resources:
Books for further study:
Brooks, Eric St. John. Sir Christopher Hatton: Queen Elizabeth's Favourite.
London: J. Cape, 1946.
Deacon, Malcolm. The Courtier and the Queen: Sir Christopher Hatton and Elizabeth I.
Colchester: Park Lane Publishing, 2008.
Vines, Alice Gilmore. Neither Fire Nor Steel: Sir Christopher Hatton.
London: Burnham, 1978.
Younger, Neil. Religion and Politics in Elizabethan England: The Life
of Sir Christopher Hatton.
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022.
Sir Christopher Hatton on the Web:
- Biography - Tudor Place
- Portraits of Sir Christopher Hatton - National Portrait Gallery, London
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