As the author of her obituary declared, she was "for a generation Britain's leading historian of 17th- and 18th century Europe...."[1] The daughter of Gustav Ingolf Hanssen and Marie Rikheim Hanssen, Ragnhild Hanssen was educated in a private school for girls in Bergen, Norway, and then in the Bergen Cathedral School.
She entered the University of Oslo, where she received her candidata magisterii (Cand.
On 24 June 1936, she married Harry Hatton (died 1989), an English businessman, who had served in the Royal Navy as well as in merchant ships and later became a mathematics teacher.
Working with G. J. Renier and Mark A. Thomson, she completed her PhD degree in 1947 with her thesis on "Diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the Dutch Republic, 1714–1721."
Books Major Contributions In addition to being a contributor to The New Cambridge Modern History, volumes VI and VII, and to journals, including European Studies Review, Journal of Modern History, and XVII Siecle, she contributed to the following works: