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{{Short description|English politician and courtier (1540–1591)}}
{{Other people|Christopher Hatton}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2012}}
{{Infobox office holder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]] Sir
| image               = [[File:Sir Christopher Hatton from NPG (2) cropped.jpg|243px]]
| caption             = Christopher Hatton, c. 1575
| office              = [[Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex]]
| term_start          = 27 October, 1590
| term_end            = 20 November, 1591
| office1             = [[Chancellor of Oxford University]]
| term_start1         = 1588
| term_end1           = 1591
| predecessor1        = [[Sir Thomas Bromley]]
| successor1          = [[Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset|Thomas Sackville, 1st Baron Buckhurst]]
| office2             = [[Lord High Chancellor of England]]
| term_start2         = 29 April, 1587
| term_end2           = 22 November, 1591
| predecessor2        = Sir Thomas Bromley
| successor2          = ''In Commission''
| office3             = [[Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire]]
| term_start3         = 1586
| term_end3           = 20 November, 1591
| office4             = [[Vice-Admiral of the coast of Dorset]]
| term_start4         = 1582
| term_end4           = 1591
| predecessor4        = [[Henry Ashley (MP for Dorset)|Henry Ashley]]
| successor4          = [[Carew Raleigh|Sir Carew Raleigh]]
| office5             = [[Vice-Chamberlain of the Household]]
| term_start5         = 1577
| term_end5           = 1587
| predecessor5        = [[Francis Knowlys|Sir Francis Knowlys]]
| successor5          = [[Thomas Heneage|Sir Thomas Heneage]]
| office6             = [[Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard]]
| term_start6         = 1572
| term_end6           = 1586
| predecessor6        = Sir Francis Knowlys
| successor6          = [[Henry Goodere (politician)|Sir Henry Goodere]]
| office7             = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]
| constituency7       = {{ubl |[[Higham Ferrers (UK Parliament constituency)|Higham Ferrers]] (1571–1572) |[[Northamptonshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Northhamptonshire]] (1572-1587)}}
| birth_date          = 12 December, 1540
| death_date          = 20 November, 1591
| parents             = William Hatton (father)<br>Alice Saunders (mother)
| education           = [[Oxford University]]
| resting_place       = [[St Paul's Cathedral]]
}}
[[File:Coat of arms of Sir Christopher Hatton, KG.png|thumb|243px|The Heraldic Achievement of Sir Christopher Hatton, K.G., of Holdenby Hall, Northants Lord Chancellor of England.]]
[[File:Somefeudalcoatso00fostrich Page 152.png|thumb|243px|Arms of Sir Christopher Hatton, KG]]

'''Sir Christopher Hatton''' (12 December 1540 – 20 November 1591) was an English politician, [[Lord Chancellor]] of [[England]] and a [[favourite]] of [[Elizabeth I of England]]. He was one of the judges who found [[Mary, Queen of Scots]] guilty of treason.

==Early years==
Sir Christopher was the second son of William Hatton (died 28 August 1546){{sfn|Nicolas|1847|p=2}} of [[Holdenby]], Northamptonshire, and his second wife, Alice Saunders, daughter of Lawrence Saunders (died 1544) of [[Harrington, Northamptonshire]]. His wife, Alice Brokesby was the daughter of Robert Brokesby (died 28 March 1531) of Shoby, [[Leicestershire]], and of Alice Shirley.{{sfn|MacCaffrey|2004}}{{sfn|Metcalfe|1887|p=27}}{{sfn|Richardson I|2011|p=402}}{{sfn|Agutter|2010|pp=288–9}}{{efn|The date of death of Hatton's mother is not known, nor whether she remarried after William Hatton's death.}}

On his father's side, the Hatton pedigree is said to be "traced beyond records". In the reign of [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]], Henry Hatton of Quisty Birches in [[Cheshire]] 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) of [[Hunningham]], [[Warwickshire]], then William Underhill (died 1570) of [[Idlicote]], Warwickshire, whose son, also William Underhill (died 1597), sold [[New Place]] to [[William Shakespeare]].{{sfn|Stopes|1907|pp=127–132}}

In 1567, Hatton's brother Thomas married John Newport's sister, Ursula Newport.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/c41a7dec-adb1-4e3f-b194-628974da662a |title=FINCH HATTON (KIRBY) |via=National Archive of the UK}}</ref> However, Hatton's two brothers appear to have died relatively young and without issue. It was his sister Dorothy's son [[William Hatton (MP)|Sir William Newport]] who eventually became Hatton's heir, changing his name to Hatton.{{sfn|Nicolas|1847|pp=1–2}}{{sfn|Metcalfe|1887|p=27}}

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 entered [[St Mary Hall, Oxford]], as a [[gentleman commoner]] at the age of 15 or 16.{{sfn|Nicolas|1847|p=2}} He left Oxford without a degree and enrolled in the [[Inner Temple]] on 26 May 1560.{{sfn|MacCaffrey|2004}} It is not known whether he was called to the bar.{{sfn|Nicolas|1847|p=3}}

==Career==

In 1561, Hatton played the part of Master of the Game at a [[masque]] at the Inner Temple,{{sfn|Nicolas|1847|p=4}} 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".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sir Christopher Hatton |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christopher-Hatton |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=12 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Rego Barry |first1=Rebecca |title=Queen Elizabeth & The Dancing Chancellor |url=https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/blog/queen-elizabeth-dancing-chancellor |website=Fine Books Magazine |access-date=12 July 2019 |date=11 June 2012}}</ref> He came to court, according to [[Robert Naunton|Naunton]], "by the [[galliard]], for he came thither as a private gentleman of the [[Inns of Court]] in a masque, and for his activity and person, which was tall and proportionable, taken into the Queen's favour."{{sfn|Nicolas|1847|pp=4–5}}

In 1564, he became one of the Queen's [[gentlemen pensioners]] and a gentleman of the privy chamber, and in July 1572 captain of the yeomen of the guard.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=63}}{{sfn|Nicolas|1847|pp=5–6, 13}} On 11 November 1577, he became vice-chamberlain of the royal household and was sworn into the [[Privy Council of England|Privy Council]]. That same month he was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]].{{sfn|Nicolas|1847|pp=38–39}} In June 1578, the Queen formally granted him the Bishop of [[Ely Cathedral|Ely's]] house in [[Ely Place]], [[Holborn]], despite vigorous protests from the Bishop.{{sfn|Nicolas|1847|pp=36 and 39}} These appointments, with the valuable grants the Queen showered on him in these early years,{{sfn|Nicolas|1847|pp=7–9 and 13}} prompted rumours that he was her lover, a charge specifically made in 1584 by [[Mary, Queen of Scots]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=63}}{{sfn|Nicolas|1847|p=15}}

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".{{sfn|Nicolas|1847|pp=25–28}} Yet Hatton "was probably innocent in the matter."{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=63}}

Hatton represented [[Higham Ferrers (UK Parliament constituency)|Higham Ferrers]] in Parliament in 1571 and from May 1572 was a member for [[Northamptonshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Northamptonshire]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=63}}{{sfn|Nicolas|1847|pp=8, 13}} He was active in Parliament in prosecutions of [[John Stubbs]] and [[William Parry (spy)|William Parry]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=63}} In 1576, he was granted land in [[Wellingborough]] by the Queen.<ref name="vch">{{cite web |last1=Salzman |first1=L F |title=Parishes: Wellingborough Pages 135-146 A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 4. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/northants/vol4/pp135-146 |website=www.british-history.ac.uk |publisher=Victoria County History, 1937 |access-date=28 May 2023}}</ref>

In 1581, he was one of those appointed to arrange a marriage between the Queen and [[Francis, Duke of Anjou|François, Duke of Alençon]],{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=63}} 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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=64}} 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 the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] in a prayer for the Queen's safety.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=64}}

Hatton was a member of the law court that tried [[Anthony 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 advised [[William Davison (diplomat)|William Davison]] to forward the warrant for her execution to [[Fotheringhay]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=64}}

Hatton sent a ring with a letter to [[Thomas Smith (diplomat)|Sir 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."<ref>Francis Grose and Thomas Astle, ''The Antiquarian Reportary'', vol. 3 (London, 1808), p. 386.</ref> [[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".<ref>Paul E. J. Hammer, 'Letters from Cecil to Hatton', ''Religion, Politics and Society in Sixteenth-Century England'' (Cambridge, 2003), p. 238.</ref>
[[File:Sir Christopher Hatton as Lord Chancellor.jpg|thumb|220x220px|Sir Christopher Hatton as Lord Chancellor]]
In 1587 Hatton became [[Lord 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 a [[Roman Catholic]] in all but name, but treated religious questions in a moderate and tolerant way.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=64}}

[[File:Nicholas Hilliard 006.jpg|thumb|Christopher Hatton as [[Lord Chancellor]] with his seal on the table by his side, by [[Nicholas Hilliard]], 1588–1591|264x264px]]Hatton was chancellor of the [[University of Oxford]]. He is reported to have been parsimonious, but he patronized men of letters and [[Edmund Spenser]] was among his friends. He wrote the fourth act of a tragedy, ''Tancred and Gismund''. His death occasioned several [[panegyric]]s in prose and verse.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=64}}

==Wealth==
[[File:Holdenby House.gif|thumb|The original [[Holdenby House]], since demolished and rebuilt|220x220px]]

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 as [[Hampton 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.

[[William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley|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 of [[Francis Drake]], including Drake's acts of piracy in Spanish America. During Drake's subsequent [[Francis Drake's Circumnavigation|circumnavigation]] of the globe, when he reached the [[Straits of Magellan]], he renamed his ship ''[[The Golden Hind]]'' in honour of Hatton's coat of arms, which contained a golden hind, and of all the [[Francis Drake#A most consequential action|Spanish gold]] on board. Hatton made a profit of £2300 from this expedition.

==Death==
[[File:Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire, UK - English Heritage property (44686327642).jpg|thumb|upright=1.8|[[Kirby Hall]], Northamptonshire. Relatively unchanged.]]
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 until [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]] would do so.<ref>Francis Grose & Thomas Astle, ''The Antiquarian Reportary'', vol. 3 (London, 1808), p. 386.</ref> The remains of the original [[Holdenby 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.<ref>[http://www.holdenby.com/rpmServer/generatorSystem/asp/rpmServer_GoGenerate.asp?intSiteID=15&intPageID=24&intNavbarOpen_Level1_ID=2 Holdenby Palace website] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070801115655/http://www.holdenby.com/rpmServer/generatorSystem/asp/rpmServer_GoGenerate.asp?intSiteID=15&intPageID=24&intNavbarOpen_Level1_ID=2 |date=1 August 2007}}</ref> He had begun to build his other country house, [[Kirby Hall]], in 1570. It was based on French architectural designs and expanded in [[Classical architecture|Classical 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 at [[Old St Paul's Cathedral|St Paul's Cathedral]] on 16 December.{{sfn|MacCaffrey|2004}} 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 the [[Great Fire of London|Great Fire]] of 1666 dethroned and destroyed it."<ref>"Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral" [[William Sinclair (Archdeacon of London)|Sinclair, W.]] p. 93: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909.</ref>{{sfn|Deacon|2008|p=213}} 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, [[William Hatton (MP)|Sir William Newport]] (1560–1597), son of his sister Dorothy Hatton, who took the surname Hatton.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=64}} When the latter died without male issue in 1597, the estates passed to Sir Christopher Hatton's first cousin once removed and [[namesake]] godson, another Sir [[Christopher Hatton (died 1619)|Christopher Hatton]] (died 1619), whose son and successor, [[Christopher Hatton, Baron Hatton of Kirby|Christopher]] became [[Baron Hatton]] of Kirby and his son [[Christopher Hatton, 1st Viscount Hatton|Christopher]] became Viscount Hatton.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=64}} This line still continues with the [[Earl of Winchilsea|Finch-Hattons]].

==Commemorations==
[[Hatton Garden]], heart of the UK's trade in cut [[diamond]]s, stands on the site of Hatton's London home and grounds. [[Sir Christopher Hatton Academy]] was founded in 1983 in [[Wellingborough]], [[Northamptonshire]].

== In popular culture ==
In the 2007 film ''[[Elizabeth: The Golden Age]],'' Sir Christopher Hatton is portrayed by [[Laurence Fox]].

==See also==
*[[Corfe Castle]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
*{{Cite journal |last=Agutter |first=Doreen |date=September 2010 |title=Edward Saunders of Harrington and Rothwell, Northamptonshire |journal=Monumental Brass Society Bulletin |volume=115 |pages=288–9 |url=http://www.mbs-brasses.co.uk/bulletin.html |access-date=26 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130725133310/http://mbs-brasses.co.uk/Bulletin.html |archive-date=25 July 2013}}
*{{Cite book |last=Deacon |first=Malcolm |year=2008 |title=The Courtier and the Queen |publisher=Park Lane Publishing |location=Welstead Farm, [[Milton Malsor]], Northampton |isbn=978-0-9523188-4-2 }}
*{{Cite ODNB |last=MacCaffrey |first=Wallace T. |year=2004 |title=Hatton, Sir Christopher (c. 1540-1591) |id=12605}}
*{{Cite book |editor-last=Metcalfe |editor-first=Walter C. |year=1887 |title=The Visitations of Northamptonshire Made in 1564 and 1618–19 |location=London |publisher=Mitchell and Hughes |pages=27 |url=https://archive.org/stream/visitationsofnor00harvrich#page/26/mode/2up |access-date=26 August 2013 }}
*{{Cite book |last=Nicolas |first=Harris |year=1847 |title=Memoirs of the Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton |publisher=Richard Bentley |location=London |url= https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.04326 }}
*{{Cite book |last=Richardson |first=Douglas |year=2011 |editor-last=Everingham |editor-first=Kimball G. |title=Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families |location=Salt Lake City |edition=2nd |volume=I |ref={{sfnref |Richardson I |2011}} |isbn=978-1-4499-6631-7}}
*{{Cite book |last=Stopes |first=Charlotte Carmichael |year=1907 |title=Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries |location=Stratford upon Avon |publisher=Shakespeare Head Press |pages=227–32 |url=https://archive.org/stream/shakespeareswarw00stop#page/228/mode/2up |access-date=20 December 2013 }}

=== Attribution ===
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Hatton, Sir Christopher |volume=13 |pages=63–64}}

==Further reading==
*{{Cite book |editor-last=Howard |editor-first=Joseph Jackson |year=1868 |title=Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica |location=London |publisher=Hamilton Adams |volume=I |page=159 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=76xBAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA159}}
*{{Cite book |editor-last=Thompson |editor-first=EM |year=1878 |title=Correspondence of the Family of Hatton, being chiefly Letters addressed to Christopher, first Viscount Hutton, 1601–1704 |location=London}}

==External links==
*[http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=D958255 Will of Dorothy Underhill, proved 28 January 1570, PROB 11/52/36, National Archives]. Retrieved 20 December 2013

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{{s-ttl | title=[[Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire]] | years=1576–1591}}
{{s-vac | next=[[Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter|The Lord Burghley]]}}
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{{s-bef|before=[[Henry Ashley (MP for Dorset)|Henry Ashley]]}}
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{{s-aft|after=[[Carew Raleigh|Sir Carew Raleigh]]}}
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{{succession box | title=[[Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard]] | before=[[Francis Knollys (the elder)|Sir Francis Knollys]] | after=Henry Goodier|Sir Henry Goodier | years=1578–1587}}
{{succession box | title=[[Lord Chancellor]] | before=[[Thomas Bromley|Sir Thomas Bromley]] | after=In Commission | years=1587–1591}}
{{s-aca}} 
{{succession box|title=[[List of Chancellors of the University of Oxford|Chancellor of the University of Oxford]]|years=1588–1591|before=[[Thomas Bromley|Sir Thomas Bromley]]|after=[[Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset|The Lord Buckhurst]]}} 
{{s-end}}

{{House of Tudor Lord Chancellors}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatton, Christopher}}
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[[Category:Alumni of St Mary Hall, Oxford]]
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