
Roderigo Lopes (c. 1517 – 7 June 1594) was a Portuguese physician who served as a physician-in-chief to
Queen Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...
from 1581 until his death by execution, having been found guilty of plotting to poison her. A Portuguese ''
converso
A ''converso'' (; ; feminine form ''conversa''), "convert" (), was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of their descendants.
To safeguard the Old Christian popula ...
'' or
New Christian
New Christian (; ; ; ; ; ) was a socio-religious designation and legal distinction referring to the population of former Jews, Jewish and Muslims, Muslim Conversion to Christianity, converts to Christianity in the Spanish Empire, Spanish and Po ...
of Jewish ancestry, he is the only royal doctor in English history to have been executed, and may have inspired the character of
Shylock
Shylock () is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play '' The Merchant of Venice'' ( 1600). A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal villain. His defeat and forced conversion to Christianity form the climax ...
in
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's ''
The Merchant of Venice
''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan taken out on behalf of his dear friend, Bassanio, and provided by 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
University of Coimbra
The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university ...
. Amid the
Portuguese Inquisition
The Portuguese Inquisition (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Inquisição Portuguesa''), officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal in 15 ...
he was accused of
secretly practising Judaism, and compelled to leave the country. He settled in London in 1559, joined the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
and became house physician at
St Bartholomew's Hospital
St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 by Rahere, and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust.
History
Early history
Barts was founded in 1123 by ...
. Gaining a reputation as a careful and skilled physician, he acquired several powerful clients, including the
Earl of Leicester
Earl of Leicester is a title that has been created seven times. The first title was granted during the 12th century in the Peerage of England. The current title is in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and was created in 1837.
History
Earl ...
and
Sir Francis Walsingham, and eventually the Queen of England herself.
The
Earl of Essex
Earl of Essex is a title in the Peerage of England which was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title has been recreated eight times from its original inception, beginning with a new first Earl upon each new cre ...
accused Lopes of conspiring to poison the Queen in January 1594. Insisting on his innocence, the doctor was convicted of
high treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...
in February and
hanged, drawn and quartered
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was a method of torture, torturous capital punishment used principally to execute men convicted of High treason in the United Kingdom, high treason in medieval and early modern Britain and Ireland. The convi ...
in June, reportedly after averring from the scaffold that "he loved the Queen as well as he loved
Jesus Christ
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
"—a statement that, from a man of Jewish background, prompted mocking laughter from the crowd. Elizabeth's three-month delay signing Lopes's
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.
Early life and family
Rodrigo Lopes was born in
Crato, Portugal into a family of Jewish origin around 1517. His father, António Lopes, was physician to
King John III of Portugal, and had been baptised into the Roman Catholic Church
under coercion in 1497. Lopes was baptised and raised in the Catholic faith as a ''
converso
A ''converso'' (; ; feminine form ''conversa''), "convert" (), was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of their descendants.
To safeguard the Old Christian popula ...
'' or
New Christian
New Christian (; ; ; ; ; ) was a socio-religious designation and legal distinction referring to the population of former Jews, Jewish and Muslims, Muslim Conversion to Christianity, converts to Christianity in the Spanish Empire, Spanish and Po ...
, and educated at the
University of Coimbra
The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university ...
. He received a
BA degree under the name Ruy Lopes on 7 February 1540, then an
MA on 4 December 1541; he enrolled for a medical course on 23 December that year. Records do not survive regarding his doctorate, but according to his biographer Edgar Samuel it is probable that he received it in 1544.
Amid the
Portuguese Inquisition
The Portuguese Inquisition (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Inquisição Portuguesa''), officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal in 15 ...
, Lopes was alleged to be a
Crypto-Jew or ''
marrano
''Marranos'' is a term for Spanish and Portuguese Jews, as well as Navarrese jews, who converted to Christianity, either voluntarily or by Spanish or Portuguese royal coercion, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but who continued t ...
''—one of Jewish descent who professed the Christian faith, but secretly adhered to the
Judaism
Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...
of his ancestors—and was compelled to leave Portugal. He settled in England in 1559, anglicising his first name as "Roger", and successfully resumed his practice as a doctor in London. He joined the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
. He soon became the house physician at
St Bartholomew's Hospital
St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 by Rahere, and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust.
History
Early history
Barts was founded in 1123 by ...
in
Smithfield. A colleague there, the surgeon
William Clowes, noted in 1591 that "Lopes showed himself to be both careful and very skilful ... in his counsel in dieting, purging and bleeding."
Around 1563 Lopes married Sarah Anes (b. 1550), the eldest daughter of another New Christian refugee from the Portuguese Inquisition, the merchant Dunstan Anes, who had settled in London in 1540. According to Samuel, both the Anes and Lopes households secretly practised Judaism, which was
then illegal in England, while outwardly conforming as Anglicans. Other scholars are ambivalent on the matter; Lopes would always insist that he was a Christian. Roderigo and Sarah had four sons and two daughters, of whom at least the eldest five—Ellyn (Elinor), Ambrose, Douglas, William and Ann—were baptised within the hospital precincts at
St Bartholomew-the-Less
St Bartholomew the Less is an Anglican church in the City of London, associated with St Bartholomew's Hospital, within whose precincts it stands. Once a parish church, it has, since 1 June 2015, been a chapel of ease in the parish of St Barth ...
between 1564 and 1579. Lopes's brother Lewis lived with them in
Holborn
Holborn ( or ), an area in central London, covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part (St Andrew Holborn (parish), St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Wards of the City of London, Ward of Farringdon Without i ...
; a second brother, Diego Lopes Aleman, became a merchant in
Antwerp
Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
and
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
.
Royal physician
Lopes developed a large practice among powerful people, including
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and the
principal secretary Sir Francis Walsingham, and in 1581 he was made physician-in-chief to
Queen Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...
and her household, with a life pension of £50 per year. In June 1584, Elizabeth granted him a monopoly on the importation of
aniseed
Anise (; '), also called aniseed or rarely anix, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia.
The flavor and aroma of its seeds have similarities with some other spices and herbs, ...
and
sumac
Sumac or sumach ( , )—not to be confused with poison sumac—is any of the roughly 35 species of flowering plants in the genus ''Rhus'' (and related genera) of the cashew and mango tree family, Anacardiaceae. However, it is '' Rhus coriaria ...
to England for ten years; this was renewed in January 1593. In 1588 he was given land and
tithe
A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Modern tithes are normally voluntary and paid in money, cash, cheques or v ...
s in
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...
belonging to the
Bishop of Worcester
The Bishop of Worcester is the Ordinary (officer), head of the Church of England Anglican Diocese of Worcester, Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title can be traced back to the foundation of the diocese in the ...
Edmund Freke.
Gabriel Harvey
Gabriel Harvey (1545 – 11 February 1631) was an English writer. Harvey was a notable scholar, whose reputation suffered from his quarrel with Thomas Nashe. Henry Morley, writing in the ''Fortnightly Review'' (March 1869), has argued that Harve ...
, an English scholar of the era, remarked on Lopes's rise on the title page of a book he owned, ''Judaeorum Medicastrorum calumnias'':
Doctor Lopus, the Queenes physitian, is descended of Jewes: but himselfe A Christian, & Portugall. He none of the learnedest, or expertest physitians in ye Court: but one, that maketh as great account of himself, as the best: & by a kind of Jewish practis, hath growen to much wealth, & sum reputation: aswell with ye Queen herselfe as with sum of ye greatest Lordes, & Ladyes.[Gabriel Harvey’s Marginalia ed. G. C. Moore Smith. Stratford-upon-Avon: Shakespeare Head Press, 1913, facsimile edition, the marginalia occurs on the title page of In Iudaeorum Medicastrorum calumnias, 1570.]
There were sections of English society at the time that believed there to be a plot, orchestrated by Catholics and carried out by Jewish physicians, to poison patients. ''Converso'' doctors in Iberia were similarly often accused of murdering their patients or attempting to poison them. In 1584, an anonymous Catholic pamphlet denouncing the Earl of Leicester suggested that "Lopes the Jewe" was one of the earl's agents "for poysoning & for the arte of destroying children in women's bellies".
Fluent in five languages, Lopes was involved in diplomatic intrigue, as many Christians of Jewish origin were at this time. Amid England's war with Spain in the 1580s, Lopes became an important member of a circle of Portuguese exiles in England, and the Queen's intermediary with the Portuguese pretender
Dom António, Prior of Crato, who was staying near
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...
. Lopes supported Dom António, but in 1586 one of the pretender's entourage, António da Veiga, wrote to the Spanish Ambassador in Paris,
Don Bernardino de Mendoza, claiming that he could persuade Lopes to poison Dom António. The Spanish did not act on this idea.
In 1590, Lopes approached Mendoza, possibly on Walsingham's behalf, with the intention of opening peace negotiations. The Spanish gave Manuel de Andrada, Lopes's intermediary, a jewelled ring worth £100 as a gift for Lopes's daughter. After Walsingham's death in 1591, Lopes continued exchanging letters with Spanish officials without the English government's knowledge or authority. There is no surviving evidence to suggest that Lopes conspired against England or Elizabeth personally, but these Spanish connections would come back to punish him—according to Samuel, "Lopes had acted stupidly and dishonestly".
Trial and execution
By the early 1590s, Lopes was wealthy and generally respected. He owned a comfortable house in Holborn and had his youngest son Anthony enrolled at
Winchester College
Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...
. He incurred the fury of one of his former patients, Queen Elizabeth's
favourite
A favourite was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In Post-classical Europe, post-classical and Early modern Europe, early-modern Europe, among other times and places, the term was used of individuals delegated signifi ...
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, when he described to Dom António and the Spanish statesman
Antonio Pérez occasions on which he had treated Essex for
venereal diseases. Learning of this from Pérez, Essex began to assemble evidence implicating Lopes as some sort of
fifth columnist in the pay of
King Philip II of Spain
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
. The
Lord High Treasurer
The Lord High Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Acts of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third-highest-ranked Great Officer of State in England, below the Lord H ...
Lord Burghley initially thought Essex's allegations against Lopes absurd. The Queen herself also rebuked Essex.
Late in 1593, Essex discovered a secret correspondence between Estevão Ferreira da Gama, one of Dom António's former supporters, and officials in the
Spanish Netherlands
The Spanish Netherlands (; ; ; ) (historically in Spanish: , the name "Flanders" was used as a '' pars pro toto'') was the Habsburg Netherlands ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556 to 1714. They were a collection of States of t ...
—and had a messenger, Manuel Luis Tinoco, arrested. Lopes's courier Gomez d'Avila, a London-based Portuguese New Christian, was also arrested. Both implicated Lopes during interrogation. On 28 January 1594 Essex wrote to
Anthony Bacon of "a most dangerous and desperate treason", the target of which was Queen Elizabeth: "The executioner should have been Dr Lopus. The manner by poison." Parallels were drawn with a letter written by Andrada to Burghley in 1591, in which reference was made to a plot whereby the King of Spain would deploy "three Portuguese to kill her Majesty and three more to kill the King of France". Tinoco was tortured and Ferreira da Gama threatened with torture until they confessed along the lines Essex suspected; Ferreira da Gama, asked if Lopes might have been willing to poison the Queen, replied in the affirmative. Lopes was arrested and held first at Essex House, then the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamle ...
. He confessed when threatened with torture, but promptly recanted this statement.
Revelations regarding Lopes's secret correspondence with Spanish officials did not help his case, particularly when it emerged that he had given the Spanish information about the English court and apparently donated money to a secret
synagogue
A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...
in Antwerp. Burghley and the spymaster
William Wade were soon "ready to believe the worst", to quote Samuel. Lopes, Ferreira da Gama and Tinoco were tried by a commission headed by Essex at
Guildhall
A guildhall, also known as a guild hall or guild house, is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Europe, with many surviving today in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commo ...
on 28 February 1594. Lopes insisted that he was innocent. The prosecutor,
Sir Thomas Egerton
Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley, (c. 1540 – 15 March 1617), known as Lord Ellesmere or Lord Egert from 1603 to 1616, was an English nobleman, judge and statesman from the Egerton family who served as Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor ...
, denounced the doctor as "a perjured, murdering villain and a Jewish doctor worse than
Judas
Judas Iscariot (; ; died AD) was, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane, in exchange for thirty pieces of ...
himself". The three were convicted of
high treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...
and sentenced to death.
The Queen waited over three months before signing the
death warrant; this delay is sometimes interpreted as evidence that the Queen doubted the case against her doctor. Lopes, Ferreira da Gama and Tinoco were
hanged, drawn and quartered
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was a method of torture, torturous capital punishment used principally to execute men convicted of High treason in the United Kingdom, high treason in medieval and early modern Britain and Ireland. The convi ...
at
Tyburn
Tyburn was a Manorialism, manor (estate) in London, Middlesex, England, one of two which were served by the parish of Marylebone. Tyburn took its name from the Tyburn Brook, a tributary of the River Westbourne. The name Tyburn, from Teo Bourne ...
on 7 June 1594. Lopes insisted to the end that he was innocent and that his professed Christian faith was genuine. He fell into a state of depression, but on the scaffold gathered his resolve and, according to the 16th-century historian
William Camden
William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland that relates la ...
, declared that "he loved the Queen as well as he loved
Jesus Christ
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
". The crowd roared with derision and laughter, taking this, from a man of Jewish background, for a thinly veiled confession.
Lopes's property was forfeited on his
attainder
In English criminal law, attainder was the metaphorical "stain" or "corruption of blood" which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason). It entailed losing not only one's life, property and hereditary titles, but ...
. His widow Sarah petitioned the Queen to be allowed to keep his estate; the Queen kept the ring given to Lopes's daughter by the Spanish, but returned the rest. Elizabeth also granted £30 per year to Anthony to support him at Winchester. A letter written by the Spanish diplomat
Count Gondomar to
King Philip III of Spain a decade after the trial seems to indicate that Lopes and Ferreira da Gama had been unjustly convicted, and that there had been no plot involving the Portuguese doctor: "the King our master
hilip IIhad never conceived nor approved such measures ... the Count of Fuentes neither received nor gave such an order, moreover it is understood that Dr Lopez never passed through his thoughts, because he was a friend of the Queen and a bad Christian." Lopes remains the only royal physician executed in English history.
Possible literary legacy
Some historians and literary critics consider Lopes and his trial to have been an influence on
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's ''
The Merchant of Venice
''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan taken out on behalf of his dear friend, Bassanio, and provided by a ...
'' (written c. 1596–98), specifically as a prototype for the play's principal antagonist
Shylock
Shylock () is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play '' The Merchant of Venice'' ( 1600). A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal villain. His defeat and forced conversion to Christianity form the climax ...
, a Venetian Jewish moneylender who hates Christians. The Lopes case prompted a revival of
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe ( ; Baptism, baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), also known as Kit Marlowe, was an English playwright, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the English Renaissance theatre, Eli ...
's play ''
The Jew of Malta
''The Jew of Malta'' (full title: ''The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta'') is a play by Christopher Marlowe, written in 1589 or 1590. The plot primarily revolves around a Maltese Jewish merchant named Barabas. The original story combi ...
'' (c. 1589–90), which according to Elizabeth Lane Furdell began rehearsals in London the same day Lopes was taken to Essex House. In Marlowe's ''
Doctor Faustus'' (c. 1592), there is a mention of Lopes—probably added after Marlowe's death in 1593—comparing him to the title character. It reads: "Doctor Lopus was never such a doctor!"
Notes and references
Footnotes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Roderigo
1510s births
1594 deaths
16th-century Anglicans
16th-century English Jews
16th-century English medical doctors
16th-century Jewish physicians
16th-century Portuguese people
16th-century Portuguese physicians
Converts to Anglicanism from Roman Catholicism
English people of Portuguese-Jewish descent
Executed English people
Executed Portuguese people
Health care professionals convicted of crimes
Jewish refugees
Medieval Jewish physicians of England
People executed under Elizabeth I by hanging, drawing and quartering
People of the Elizabethan era
Poisoners
Portuguese emigrants
Immigrants to the Kingdom of England
Portuguese people executed abroad
Spanish spies
University of Coimbra alumni
Court of Elizabeth I