Roderigo Lopez Affair

Roderigo Lopez, a Portuguese-born physician of Jewish ancestry, rose to become a prominent London doctor and physician to Queen Elizabeth I. In 1593–1594 he was drawn into an intelligence investigation involving Portuguese exiles and alleged Spanish contacts, and was accused of agreeing to poison the queen. The case became entangled with the political rivalry surrounding Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, who pressed the accusations.

Lopez was convicted of high treason in February 1594 and executed at Tyburn in June. His guilt has remained disputed, and Elizabeth’s delay in authorising the execution has often been taken as evidence that she retained doubts. The proceedings also exposed the force of anti-Jewish prejudice in a country from which Jews had formally been expelled centuries earlier and where Lopez’s ancestry was repeatedly used against him.

S. W. Perry’s The Heretic’s Mark opens in the immediate aftermath of the affair. Lopez’s execution and the climate of conspiracy around it provide the political trigger for the danger facing Nicholas Shelby and Bianca Merton before the action moves from London towards Padua.