Roderigo Lopes

Roderigo Lopes (also called Ruy Lopes, Ruy Lopez, Roderigo Lopus, Ruy Lopus, Roger Lopez and Rodrigo Lopes; also referred to as Roderigo Lopez and Rodrigo Lopez; c. 1517 – 7 June 1594) served as a physician-in-chief to <a href="/facts/Elizabeth_I_of_England/5cT5QrWj">Queen Elizabeth I of England</a> from 1581 until his death by execution, having been found guilty of plotting to poison her. A Portuguese <a href="/facts/Converso/brcumnPB">converso</a> or <a href="/facts/New_Christian/hkskeg8V">New Christian</a> of Jewish ancestry, he is the only royal doctor in English history to have been executed, and may have inspired the character of <a href="/facts/Shylock/bNlqryap">Shylock</a> in <a href="/facts/William_Shakespeare/ohI96JTv">Shakespeare</a>'s <a href="/facts/The_Merchant_of_Venice/kvx0oQTI">The Merchant of Venice</a>, which was written within four years of his death.
The son of a Portuguese royal physician of Jewish descent, Lopes was raised a Catholic and educated at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Coimbra/48D6TApJ">University of Coimbra</a>. Amid the <a href="/facts/Portuguese_Inquisition/ab37WLvh">Portuguese Inquisition</a> he was accused of <a href="/facts/Crypto-Judaism/Yy37Qp9W">secretly practising Judaism</a>, and compelled to leave the country. He settled in London in 1559, joined the <a href="/facts/Church_of_England/A1CoKeGz">Church of England</a> and became house physician at <a href="/facts/St_Bartholomew%2527s_Hospital/SbndtW4R">St Bartholomew's Hospital</a>. Gaining a reputation as a careful and skilled physician, he acquired several powerful clients, including the <a href="/facts/Robert_Dudley%2c_1st_Earl_of_Leicester/pvqDcQtg">Earl of Leicester</a> and <a href="/facts/Francis_Walsingham/tWNdf3jo">Sir Francis Walsingham</a>, and eventually the Queen of England herself.
The <a href="/facts/Robert_Devereux%2c_2nd_Earl_of_Essex/L2v5JStz">Earl of Essex</a> accused Lopes of conspiring to poison the Queen in January 1594. Insisting on his innocence, the doctor was convicted of <a href="/facts/High_treason/lqT6ECtV">high treason</a> in February and <a href="/facts/Hanged%2c_drawn_and_quartered/zYgsNN17">hanged, drawn and quartered</a> in June, reportedly after averring from the scaffold that "he loved the Queen as well as he loved <a href="/facts/Jesus/Hcd9hEzI">Jesus Christ</a>"—a statement that, from a man of Jewish background, prompted mocking laughter from the crowd. Elizabeth's three-month delay signing Lopes's <a href="/facts/Death_warrant/fK6VUQkv">death warrant</a> is sometimes interpreted as evidence that she doubted the case against him. In any case she returned almost all of his estate to his widow and children.

Roderigo Lopes open-in-new

Roderigo Lopes