Corfe had been a royal stronghold since the reign of William the Conqueror, but Hatton, who paid £4.,61.18s. 71/2 d for the castle, was a new breed - a self-made man who grew rich through his political connections and by backing risky sea voyages to the New World, among them those of Sir Francis Drake.
Drake repaid his support with Spanish treasure and by renaming his most famous ship, The Golden Hind, in Hatton’s honour.
Hatton was the son of Northamptonshire gentry who caught the eye of Queen Elizabeth I through his good looks and skill as a dancer, and quickly established himself as a court favourite.
With the Queen’s patronage he rose to become Lord Chancellor, the most senior judge in England, despite having left Oxford University without a degree and apparently never having qualified as a lawyer.
Piracy
Among his titles was Admiral of the Purbeck Fleet which gave him the right to fit out warships both to defend England against invaders and to capture enemy vessels as prizes – a sort of licenced piracy.
He also had right to the 'wreck of the sea' and to ‘prisage’ - a portion of the cargo from every ship carrying wine and landing in Purbeck.
Hatton spent his new found wealth lavishly and turned to get-rich-quick schemes to pay off his creditors.
Protestant England was at loggerheads with Spain, Europe’s Catholic superpower, and cast envious eyes on the wealth flowing from the Spanish overseas empire.
Hatton was a leading light among those who invested in Sir Francis Drake’s 1577-80 voyage in search of plunder, an adventure that took Drake and the crew of his ship Pelican around the world.
The Golden Hind
When he reached the Pacific Ocean Drake renamed his ship The Golden Hind, inspired by the emblem on Hatton’s coat of arms and the stacks of Spanish gold in her hold. That venture alone earned Hatton £2,300 – a fortune at the time.
