the best society, he at last had a part assigned him in a masque at Court, which gave him a very favourable opportunity to show off his fine person, his elegant taste for dress, and his unrivalled proficiency in dancing. He CHAP. XLV. vates her service. Queen takes security for money ad vanced to him. The tender heart of Elizabeth was at once touched by his He captiathletic frame, manly beauty, and graceful air; and she openly Queen expressed her high admiration of his dancing. An offer was Elizabeth. instantly made by her to admit him of the band of gentlemen Taken into pensioners. He expressed great willingness to renounce all his prospects in the profession of the law, but informed her that he had incurred debts which were beginning to be troublesome to him. She advanced him money to pay them off-at the same time (more suo) taking a bond and statute merchant to repay her when he should be of ability. little thought he should ever hear of these securities, which afterwards were supposed to be the cause of his death ; — and before he had even reached the degree of apprentice or utter barrister, he joyfully transferred himself from his dull chambers in the Temple to a gay apartment assigned him in the Palace, near the Queen's. He was henceforth the reigning favourite, His rapid and his official promotion was rapid. He was successively made promotion a gentleman of the Queen's privy chamber, captain of the band of gentlemen pensioners (her body guard), Vice-chamberlain, and a member of the Privy Council. This delight of the Queen to honour him caused much envy and some scandal. Complaints were uttered, that under the existing government nothing could be obtained by any others than "dancers and So far remit his might, and slack his fire As in the rising moon, let not her cheeks As red as is the party-colour'd rose, Be paled with the news hereof: and so To him, for her for whom my death shall show Act iv. sc. 4. There is a chorus somewhat after the Greek fashion, and the tragedy is a curious illustration of the state of the drama in England in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign; although we shall in vain look in it for such felicity of thought and harmony of numbers as in Dryden's exquisite poem of "Sigis at Court. CHAP. He is returned to and be comes leader of of Com mons. carpet knights, such as the Earl of Lincoln and Master Hatton, who were admitted to the Queen's privy chamber.”* Sir John Perrot, a stout soldier, could not conceal his indignation, when he found himself neglected for one who he was used to say "came into Court by the galliard, coming 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 favour." The Vice-chamberlain was particularly obnoxious to the Puritans; and Burchet, a student of the Middle Temple, a leader of this sect, in a fit of religious enthusiasm, resolved to kill him, but by mistake murdered, first, in the public street Hawkins an officer, and then Longworth, the keeper of a house in which he was confined.‡ But Christopher now began to feel the stings of ambition parliament, as well as love; and although uneducated,—from his natural shrewdness and ready wit, he was by no means inapt for business. He was returned to parliament, and soon gained a the House considerable position in the Commons, often fonder of what is showy than what is solid, insomuch, that when Burghley was made a peer, the Vice-chamberlain represented the government in the lower House, and, with the assistance of the Speaker, managed it according to the Queen's directions. When Wentworth, the Puritan, made his famous speech which gave such offence to the courtiers, Hatton moved his commitment to the Tower, and afterwards brought down the message from her Majesty, that "whereas a member had uttered divers offensive matters against her, for which he had been imprisoned, yet she was pleased to remit her justly occasioned displeasure, and to refer his enlargement to the House," whereupon, after an admonition from the Speaker, he was set at liberty. § A. D. 1575. Elizabeth's marriage Himself a lover of the Queen, he eagerly took a part in breaking off the negotiation for her marriage with the Duke of Anjou. He was actually present at the interview when * See the examinations of Berners and Mather, apprehended as implicated in the conspiracy of the Duke of Norfolk. Murdin, 124–210. Camden, 254. + Naunton. He was evidently insane; but in those days they did not stand on such niceties: he was convicted and executed. Camden, 284. § 1 Parl. Hist. 802. XLV. Duke of she renounced that Prince; and he is represented as having CHAP. assisted her in answering the reproaches of her discarded suitor by a speech which few would have used the liberty to with the make in her presence; for he pointed out the disparity of age, and the improbability of her having issue if she were to marry. The Duke declared that the women of England were as changeable and capricious as the waves which encircled. their island.* Anjou. A. D. 1581. in murder of Earl of Northumberland. The only very serious suspicion ever thrown upon Hatton's Suspicion of being conduct arose out of his connection with the death of Henry concerned Percy, Earl of Northumberland. After this nobleman had been long confined in the Tower, without being brought to trial, the Lieutenant received an order to remove the Earl's keeper, and to substitute for him a servant of Sir Christopher Hatton. The same night the prisoner was found dead in his bed, having been shot through the heart with three slugs. A verdict of felo de se being returned by the coroner's jury, the subject was taken up in the Star Chamber, and there Sir Christopher and other members of the Court delivered harangues to prove that the deceased had been guilty of treason, and that to escape a public trial and conviction, with the forfeiture of his houses and estate, he had put an end to his existence. Yet sinister inferences were drawn by the multitude from the change of his Keeper, the difficulty of conveying fire arms to a prisoner in the Tower, and the eagerness of the government to have him found guilty of suicide. against Queen of Hatton took an open and undisguised part in the proceed- Part taken by him ings against the Queen of Scots. He began with a piece of hypocrisy, which, considering his notoriously profligate life, Mary must have a little shocked the religious feelings of his Scots. audience, though none of them ventured to oppose him. Rising in his place in the House of Commons, and detailing the plots which he alleged to be concerted against Elizabeth and the Protestant faith, he moved, "That besides the rendering of our most humble and loyal thanks unto her Highness, we do, being now assembled, forthwith join our hearts and CHAP. in the House of minds together in most humble and earnest prayer unto Almighty God for the long continuance of the most prosperous His prayer preservation of her Majesty, with most due and thankful acknowledgment of his infinite benefits and blessings poured Commons. upon this whole realm through the mediation of her Highness's ministry under him." This being carried unanimously, the gentleman of her Highness's Privy Chamber, acting the part of Chaplain to the House, pulled a form of supplication from his pocket to the above effect, and all the members present, dropping down on their knees with seeming devotion, joined with him in his litany.* Sits on trial of Babing ton, &c. He took a leading part in passing through the House of Commons the bill under which Mary was to be tried. † He sat on the bench as a commissioner at the preliminary trials of Babington, Savage, Ballard, Abington, Tilney, and the other conspirators. Savage's confession being proved, with a view to the use to be made of it as evidence against Mary, Lord Commissioner Hatton thus addressed him :"Savage, I must ask thee one question: Was not all this willingly and voluntarily confessed by thyself without menacing, without torture, and without offer of any torture?" The poor wretch, in the vain hope of mercy, eagerly replied, "Yes." Although the two Chief Justices, May and Anderson, and Chief Baron Manwood, were present, Hatton took the lead in the conduct of the trial; and when it was getting late in the evening observed, they should hardly be able to finish the business if they sat up all night, and ordered the Court to be adjourned till seven o'clock next morning. ‡ He then strongly urged Ballard to a full confession, saying to him, "O, Ballard, Ballard, what hast thou done? A sort of brave youths, endowed with good gifts, by thy inducements hast thou brought to their utter destruction and confusion." The young man exclaiming, "Howbeit, say what you will, I will say no more!" Hatton added, "Nay, Ballard, you must say more, and shall say more, for you must * 1 Parl. Hist. 828. † 27 Eliz. c. 1. 1 St. Tr. 1127. 1131. not commit high treasons and then huddle them up. But is this thy Religio Catholica? Nay, rather it is Diabolica." He then took in hand Barnewell, another prisoner, administering to him this string of interrogatories. "O! Barnewell, Barnewell, didst not thou come to Richmond, and when her Majesty walked abroad, didst not thou there view her and all her company what weapons they had, and how they walked alone? and didst traverse the ground, and thereupon coming back to London didst make relation to Babington, how it was a most easy matter to kill her Majesty, and what thou hadst seen and done at the Court? Yes, I know thou didst so." Taking all this for confessed, he then, without being sworn, gives some evidence himself. “ Nay, I can assure thee moreover, and it is most true which I say, that her Majesty did know that thou didst come to that end, and she did see and mark thee how thou didst view her and her company; but had it been known to some there as well as unto her, thou hadst never brought news to Babington. Such is the magnanimity of our Sovereign, which God grant be not overmuch in not fearing such traitors as thou art." The sentence on the prisoner was pronounced by Lord Chief Justice Anderson, but this was prefaced by "an excellent good speech from Sir Christopher Hatton, showing how, stirred up by wicked priests, the ministers of the Pope, they had conspired to murder the Queen's Majesty, to deliver the Queen of Scots"—(charges which were proved);—"to sack the city of London; to rob and destroy all the wealthy subjects of the realm; to kill divers of the Privy Council; to set fire to all the Queen's ships, and to clog all the great ordnance”—(charges unsupported by any evidence). He concluded by pointing out the falsehood of a book recently printed at Rome, and made by the Papists, wherein they affirm that "the English Catholics who suffer for religion be lapped in bear-skins and bated to death with dogs." But although he had very roughly refused a prisoner's request to have a pair of writing tables to set down what was alleged against him,—another, after sentence of death, praying that his debts might be satisfied out of his property, the Vice CHAP. XLV. |