Rodrigo Lopez, physician of Queen Elizabeth (b. 1525)
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 Queen Elizabeth I of England from 1581 until his death by execution, having been found guilty of plotting to poison her. A Portuguese converso or New Christian of Jewish ancestry, he is the only royal doctor in English history to have been executed, and may have inspired the character of Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, 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 University of Coimbra. Amid the Portuguese Inquisition he was accused of secretly practising Judaism, and compelled to leave the country. He settled in London in 1559, joined the Church of England and became house physician at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Gaining a reputation as a careful and skilled physician, he acquired several powerful clients, including the Earl of Leicester and Sir Francis Walsingham, and eventually the Queen of England herself.
The Earl of Essex accused Lopes of conspiring to poison the Queen in January 1594. Insisting on his innocence, the doctor was convicted of high treason in February and hanged, drawn and quartered in June, reportedly after averring from the scaffold that "he loved the Queen as well as he loved Jesus Christ"—a statement that, from a man of Jewish background, prompted mocking laughter from the crowd. Elizabeth's three-month delay signing Lopes' death warrant 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.
1594Jun, 7
Rodrigo López (physician)
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Events on 1594
- 19Feb
Sigismund III Vasa
Having already been elected to the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1587, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, having succeeded his father John III of Sweden in 1592. - 5Jul
Campaign of Danture
Portuguese forces under the command of Pedro Lopes de Sousa begin an unsuccessful invasion of the Kingdom of Kandy during the Campaign of Danture in Sri Lanka. - 9Oct
Campaign of Danture
The army of the Portuguese Empire is annihilated by the Kingdom of Kandy on Sri Lanka, bringing an end to the Campaign of Danture.