Hatton, Sir Christopher (1540–1591)

Lord Chancellor (1587–91) and favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England. He first came to the queen's attention with his dancing and became an influential and conservative courtier. As a Privy Councillor from 1577, he acted as a government spokesperson in the Commons and in Council supported the Earl of Leicester's hardline anti-Spanish foreign policy. He took a conservative line on the religious status quo, playing a leading part in the trials of Catholic conspirators and Mary Queen of Scots in 1586, and as Lord Chancellor, working hard to suppress extreme Puritans and religious separatists.