Wikipedia

Christopher Hatton

For other people named Christopher Hatton, seeChristopher Hatton (disambiguation).

Sir Christopher HattonKG(12 December 1540 – 20 November 1591) was an English politician,Lord ChancellorofEnglandand afavouriteofElizabeth I of England.He was one of the judges who foundMary, Queen of Scotsguilty of treason.

Christopher Hatton, c. 1575
The Heraldic Atchievement of Sir Christopher Hatton, K.G., of Holdenby Hall, Northants Lord Chancellor of England.
Arms of Sir Christopher Hatton, KG

Early years

edit

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 inCheshiremarried 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 PlacetoWilliam 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 son by John Newport who eventually became Hatton's heir.[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, Oxfordas agentleman commonerat the age of 15 or 16.[1]He left Oxford without a degree and enrolled in theInner Templeon 26 May 1560.[2]It is not known whether he was called to the bar.[9]

Career

edit

In 1561 Hatton played the part of Master of the Game at amasqueat 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 Courtin 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 pensionersand 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'shouse in Ely 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 Ferrersin Parliament in 1571 and from May 1572 was a member forNorthamptonshire.[14][21]He was active in Parliament in prosecutions ofJohn StubbsandWilliam Parry.[14]In 1576, he was granted land inWellingboroughby the Queen.[22]

In 1581, he was one of those appointed to arrange a marriage between the Queen andFrancois, 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 Commonsin a prayer for the Queen's safety.[23]

Hatton was a member of the law court that triedAnthony Babingtonin 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 Davisonto 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 Cecilreported 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]

Sir Christopher Hatton as Lord Chancellor

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 Catholicin all but name, but treated religious questions in a moderate and tolerant way.[23]

Christopher Hatton asLord Chancellorwith his seal on the table by his side, byNicholas Hilliard,1588–1591

Hatton was chancellor of theUniversity of Oxford.He is reported to have been parsimonious, but he patronized men of letters andEdmund Spenserwas among his friends. He wrote the fourth act of a tragedy,Tancred and Gismund.His death occasioned severalpanegyricsin prose and verse.[23]

Wealth

edit
The originalHoldenby House,since demolished and rebuilt

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 Courtpalace. 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 subsequentcircumnavigationof the globe, when he reached theStraits of Magellan,he renamed his shipThe Golden Hindin honour of Hatton's coat of arms, which contained a golden hind, and of all theSpanish goldon board. Hatton made a profit of £2300 from this expedition.

Death

edit
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 untilQueen Elizabeth Iwould do so.[26]The remains of the originalHoldenby Houseare a room incorporated into a replacement building in the 1870s; part of the pillared doorway with two arches inscribed with the date 1583 in the gardens; and 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 styleover 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 Cathedralon 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 Fireof 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 Ursula 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 and namesake godson, another SirChristopher Hatton(died 1619), whose son and successor,ChristopherbecameBaron Hattonof Kirby and his sonChristopherbecame Viscount Hatton.[23]This line still continues with theFinch-Hattons.

Commemorations

edit

Hatton Garden,heart of the UK's trade in cutdiamonds,stands on the site of Hatton's London home and grounds.Sir Christopher Hatton Academywas founded in 1983 inWellingborough,Northamptonshire.

edit

In the 2007 filmElizabeth: The Golden Age,Sir Christopher Hatton is portrayed byLaurence Fox.

See also

edit

Notes

edit
  1. ^The date of death of Hatton's mother is not known, nor whether she remarried after William Hatton's death.
  1. ^abNicolas 1847,p. 2.
  2. ^abcMacCaffrey 2004.
  3. ^abMetcalfe 1887,p. 27.
  4. ^Richardson I 2011,p. 402.
  5. ^Agutter 2010,pp. 288–9.
  6. ^Stopes 1907,pp. 127–132.
  7. ^"FINCH HATTON (KIRBY)"– via National Archive of the UK.
  8. ^Nicolas 1847,pp. 1–2.
  9. ^Nicolas 1847,p. 3.
  10. ^Nicolas 1847,p. 4.
  11. ^"Sir Christopher Hatton".Encyclopaedia Britannica.Retrieved12 July2019.
  12. ^Rego Barry, Rebecca (11 June 2012)."Queen Elizabeth & The Dancing Chancellor".Fine Books Magazine.Retrieved12 July2019.
  13. ^Nicolas 1847,pp. 4–5.
  14. ^abcdefChisholm 1911,p. 63.
  15. ^Nicolas 1847,pp. 5–6, 13.
  16. ^Nicolas 1847,pp. 38–39.
  17. ^Nicolas 1847,pp. 36 and 39.
  18. ^Nicolas 1847,pp. 7–9 and 13.
  19. ^Nicolas 1847,p. 15.
  20. ^Nicolas 1847,pp. 25–28.
  21. ^Nicolas 1847,pp. 8, 13.
  22. ^Salzman, L F."Parishes: Wellingborough Pages 135-146 A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 4".british-history.ac.uk.Victoria County History, 1937.Retrieved28 May2023.
  23. ^abcdefgChisholm 1911,p. 64.
  24. ^Francis Grose and Thomas Astle,The Antiquarian Reportary,vol. 3 (London, 1808), p. 386.
  25. ^Paul E. J. Hammer, 'Letters from Cecil to Hatton',Religion, Politics and Society in Sixteenth-Century England(Cambridge, 2003), p. 238.
  26. ^Francis Grose & Thomas Astle,The Antiquarian Reportary,vol. 3 (London, 1808), p. 386.
  27. ^Holdenby Palace websiteArchived1 August 2007 at theWayback Machine
  28. ^"Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral"Sinclair, W.p. 93: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909.
  29. ^Deacon 2008,p. 213.

References

edit

Attribution

edit

Further reading

edit
  • Howard, Joseph Jackson, ed. (1868).Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica.Vol. I. London: Hamilton Adams. p. 159.
  • Thompson, EM, ed. (1878).Correspondence of the Family of Hatton, being chiefly Letters addressed to Christopher, first Viscount Hutton, 1601–1704.London.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
edit
Political offices
Preceded by
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
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christopher_Hatton&oldid=1242267464"