Sir Christopher Hatton was an English politician, Lord Chancellor of England and a favourite of Elizabeth I of England.
Background
Sir Christopher Hatton was born on 1540 at Northamptonshire, East Midlands, England. He was the second son of William Hatton (died 28 August 1546) of Holdenby, Northamptonshire, and his second wife, Alice Saunders, the daughter of Lawrence Saunders (died 1544) of Harrington, Northamptonshire, and his wife, Alice Brokesby, the daughter of Robert Brokesby (died 28 March 1531) of Shoby, Leicestershire, and Alice Shirley.
Education
He was educated at St Mary Hall, Oxford. Hatton left Oxford without taking a degree, and enrolled in the Inner Temple on 26 May 1560.
Career
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.
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.
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 Fother- ingay.
Elizabeth frequently showed her affection for her favourite in an extravagant and ostentatious manner.
Hatton is reported to have been a very mean man, but he patronized men of letters, and among his friends was Edmund Spenser.
In 1683 he was created Viscount Hatton of Grendon.
Achievements
Religion
He is said to have been a Roman Catholic in all but name, yet he treated religious questions in a moderate and tolerant way.
Membership
He was a member of the court which tried Anthony Babington in 1586.
Connections
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), who took the surname Hatton.
When Sir William Hatton died without male issue in 1597, the estates passed to a kinsman, another Sir Christopher Hatton (died 1619), whose son and successor, Christopher, was created Baron Hatton of Kirby.