What is Rodrigo López?
'''Roderigo López''' (1525 – June 7, 1594) was a [[physician]] of Portuguese background. He was tried and [[Execution|executed]] for trying to [[poison]] [[Elizabeth I]]. He is believed to be the inspiration for [[Shakespeare]]'s character Shylock in ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]''. López was born into a family of [[Jew|Jewish]] origin in [[Portugal]]. He graduated from university with a degree in medicine. He went to [[England]] where he was appointed chief physician to Elizabeth I in 1586. He knew powerful men at court, and grew rich and respected. He was involved in various court intrigues until convicted of plotting to poison the Queen. He was hanged, drawn and quartered. Several contemporaries make reference to the trial and execution. [[Christopher Marlowe]] mentions it in ''[[Doctor Faustus]]'' as do [[Thomas Dekker]] in ''[[Whore of Babylon]]'' and [[Thomas Middleton]] in ''[[A Game at Chess]]''. It is possible that Shylock in [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' was inspired by López.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10109-lopez-rodrigo|title=LOPEZ, RODRIGO - JewishEncyclopedia.com|website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com}}</ref> Queen Elizabeth I’s physician, Roderigo Lopez, was tried and executed for allegedly plotting to kill the queen in 1594. As a Portuguese double agent, ‘Doctor Lopez a Jew’ was said to have conspired with the Spanish, England’s enemies at that time. He was accused of attempting to kill the Portuguese King Antonio and ‘take away Queene Elizabeths life by poyson’, in return for ‘fifty thousand Crowns’ ==References== {{Reflist}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Rodrigo}} [[Category:1525 births]] [[Category:1594 deaths]] [[Category:Executed people]] [[Category:Jewish scientists]] [[Category:Physicians]] [[Category:Portuguese scientists]] {{bio-stub}}