פרשת לופז: עלייתו ונפילתו של רופא המלכה היהודי

Studies the Lopez affair against the background of English and European politics in the late 16th century. Roderigo Lopez, who was born in Portugal to a family of Conversos, arrived in England in 1559. He became Queen Elizabeth's personal physician in 1578, and was one of her advisors as well. In 1594 he was accused of being a Spanish agent and of plotting to poison the queen. This accusation was the result of a power struggle, in which the Earl of Essex got the upper hand and arranged for the indictment against and execution of Lopez. Essex used antisemitism to incite the populace, which demanded Lopez's execution. He may have also used antisemitic arguments to convince the queen to sign the execution order, which she had been reluctant to do. States that Marlowe's antisemitic "The Jew of Malta" was popular during this period, and that Lopez probably was the prototype for Shakespeare's Shylock.