Sir Christopher Hatton KG was an English politician, Lord Chancellor of England and a favourite of Elizabeth I of England. He was one of the judges who found Mary, Queen of Scots guilty of treason.
Christopher Hatton, c. 1575
Sir Christopher Hatton as Lord Chancellor
Christopher Hatton as Lord Chancellor with his seal on the table by his side, by Nicholas Hilliard, 1588–1591
Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire. Relatively unchanged.
The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The lord chancellor is appointed by the sovereign on the advice of the prime minister. Prior to the union of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain, there were separate lord chancellors for the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland. There were Lord Chancellors of Ireland until 1922.
Lord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor (Viscount Hailsham), as depicted on a cigarette card produced for the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937. His ceremonial purse would once have contained the Great Seal of the Realm.
The Lord High Chancellor wearing full ceremonial dress at the 2023 State Opening of Parliament, preceded by his purse-bearer and a serjeant-at-arms.
Heraldic banner of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who was the archbishop of York and lord chancellor, showing the arms of the See of York impaling his personal arms, with a cardinal's hat above. The griffin supporter holds the lord chancellor's mace
