Sir Christopher Hatton

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Sir Christopher Hatton

by Nicholas Hilliard
watercolour and bodycolour on vellum, after 1588
1 7/8 in. x 1 3/8 in. (47 mm x 35 mm) oval
Purchased, 1983
Primary Collection
NPG 5549

Images

Detail of the sitter's right eye.
Detail of the sitter's hairline.
Hatton wears the collar of the Order of the G…
Suspended from the collar of the Order of the…

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  • Nicholas Hilliard (circa 1547-1619), Miniature painter. Artist or producer associated with 34 portraits.

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This miniature must have been painted after Hatton had been elected a Knight of the Garter in 1588. It is executed in watercolour on vellum, stuck down on a playing card with a single red heart on the back. The detail of the costume is not unlike another miniature of Hatton, this time showing the sitter full-length, that Hilliard also painted at about this time (in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum).

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Events of 1588back to top

Current affairs

The Spanish Armada sets sail for England from Lisbon but after a running battle up the Channel is met by English fire ships off Calais and destroyed. The remainder of the fleet is forced to flee. A huge thanksgiving service is held at St Paul's Cathedral to celebrate the victory.
Death of Queen Elizabeth I's favourite Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

Art and science

The scientist and colonist Thomas Harriot publishes A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, in which he claims that tobacco has medicinal properties.
Publication of William Morgan's Welsh translation of the Bible.
The playwright Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy is performed for the first time.

International

Henry III of France flees Paris after the militant catholic Henry, Duke of Guise is welcomed into the city. The King is forced to decree an end to all toleration of the Huguenots (French Protestants) and to annul the Protestant Henry of Navarre's right to the throne. The Duke of Guise is later assassinated on the orders of the King.
Abbas I became Shah of Persia. He will rule the Persian Empire until his death in 1629.

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