Roderigo Lopes

Rodrigo Lopez was physician to Queen Elizabeth, and who is said to have been the inspiration for Shakespeare's Shylock. He was executed for treason for alleged conspiration to kill the queen. He maintained his innocence and his being converted from Judiasm to Christianity to his death. Famously, right before he was hanged he said to the crowd that he loved his queen as much as he loved Jesus. The crowd laughed at this statement taking it for a thinnly veiled confession as in their eyes we was a Jew. He may have been inspiration to Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.