Christopher Hatton

Sir Christopher Hatton (1540 - November 20, 1591) was an English politician, the lord chancellor of England and some speculate was the lover of Queen Elizabeth I.

His father was William Hatton (d. 1546) of Holdenby, Northamptonshire, and he was educated at St Mary Hall, Oxford. Known as a handsome and accomplished man, especially distinguished for his elegant dancing, he soon attracted the notice of Queen Elizabeth and became one of her gentlemen pensioners in 1564, and the captain of her bodyguard in 1572. He received valuable estates and offices from the Queen, and this prompted rumours that he was her lover, a charge which was definitely made by Mary, Queen of Scots in 1584. Hatton 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 Northamptonshire. In 1578 he was knighted, and became the Queen's spokesman in the House of Commons. He was an active agent in the prosecutions of John Stubbs and William Parry, disputing John Jovey's suggestion to execute the "seditious pair." He was also one of those appointed to arrange a marriage between Elizabeth and Francis, Duke of Alençon, in 1551.

As a lawyer, he 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 of treason. He urged Elizabeth not to marry the French prince; but, according to one account, repeatedly assured Mary that he would fetch her to London if the English queen died. Whether true or not, Hatton's loyalty was unquestioned; and he brought about a memorable incident seen 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 Fotheringhay. 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, 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 gave her friend generous gifts. 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 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.

When Hatton's nephew, Sir William Hatton, died without sons in 1597, his estates passed to a kinsman, another Sir Christopher Hatton (d. 1619), whose son and successor, Christopher, was created Baron Hatton of Kirby.

See Sir NH Nicolas, Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton (London, 1847); and Correspondence of the Family of Hatton, being chiefly Letters addressed to Christopher, first Viscount hutton, 1601-1704, edited with introduction by EM Thompson (London, 1878).