thumb|Sir John Hayward, 1630, by [[Willem de Passe.]]
Sir John Hayward (c. 1564 – 27 June 1627) was an English historian, lawyer and politician.
Biography
Hayward was born at or near Felixstowe, Suffolk, where he was educated, and afterwards went to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he was awarded BA in 1581, MA in 1584 and LLD in 1591.
In 1599 he published The First Part of the Life and Raigne of King Henrie IIII - a treatise dealing with the accession of Henry IV and the deposition of Richard II - dedicated to Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth and her advisers disliked the tone of the book and its dedication, and the queen ordered Francis Bacon to search for passages in it that might be drawn within a case of treason being compiled against the Earl of Essex. Specifically, Hayward was suspected of prophesying the failure of Essex's military campaign in Ireland through a description of the ill-starred efforts of Richard II in that country. On 11 July 1599, following the seizure and burning of a corrected edition of the book, Hayward was interrogated before the Star Chamber. The Queen, "argued that Hayward was pretending to be the author in order to shield 'some more mischievous' person, and that he should be racked so that he might disclose the truth". Bacon reported of the evidence for treason, "surely I find none, but for felony very many", referring to the fact that many of the sentences were stolen from Tacitus. The influence on Hayward of the works of Tacitus, which had only lately been published in English, marked a new departure in British historiography, whereby the character and behaviour of historical actors assumed a causal importance in the affairs of state. From 1616 to 1627 he was Master in Chancery. He was admitted at Gray's Inn on 1 August 1619 and was knighted on 9 November 1619.