Rodrigo Borgia (or Roderic Llançol de Borja I Borja) is an (in)famous Pope, known in his Papacy as Pope Alexander VI. He is also known for his controversial life and family.
Rodrigo (or Ruy) Díaz de Vivar (c. 1040, Vivar, near Burgos – 10 July 1099, Valencia), known as El Cid Campeador, was a Castilian nobleman, military leader and gifted diplomat, who after being exiled, conquered and governed the city of Valencia. Rodrigo Díaz was educated in the royal court of Castile and became the alférez, or chief general, of Alfonso VI, and his most valuable asset in the fight against the Moors.The nickname "El Cid" comes from the Spanish article "El", which means "The" and the dialectal Arab word سيد "sïdi" or sayyid, which means "Lord". So "El Cid" could be translated as "The Lord". The title "Campeador" is a vulgar Latin word that could be translated as "master of military arts".
Rodrigo de Rato y Figaredo (born March 18, 1949) was Spain's Economy Minister and Vice President serving with the Conservative People's Party (PP) between 1996 and 2004. He was appointed to become the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on May 4, 2004, and took up his duties on June 7, 2004. He has left his post at the IMF on October 31, 2007, following the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings. He is married to María Ángeles Alarco Canosa, a businesswoman.
Rodrigo González Sesma (born March 13, 1968) is a retired freestyle swimmer from Mexico. He represented his native country at two consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in Seoul, South Korea (1988). He won the bronze medal in the Men's 100m Freestyle at the 1991 Pan American Games.
Rodrigo Lopez, whose original name was probably Rodrigo Lopes (c. 1525 – June 7, 1594), was physician to Queen Elizabeth, and may have been an inspiration for Shakespeare's Shylock in the The Merchant of Venice. He was born in Crato, Portugal and raised as a New Christian, but driven away from Portugal by the Portuguese Inquisition and considered a Marrano (a hidden Jew).He made London his home in 1559 and very successfully resumed his practice as a doctor, soon becoming house physician at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Despite racial prejudice and professional jealousy, he developed a large practice among powerful people including Robert Dudley and Francis Walsingham. Rumor held that his success was less due to his medical skill and more to his skill at flattery and self-promotion. In a 1584 libelous pamphlet attacking Dudley, it was suggested that Lopez distilled poisons for Dudley and other nobleman as well. In 1586, he reached the pinnacle of his profession; he was made physician-in-chief to Queen Elizabeth. Lopez was held in the queen's favour for, in 1589, she granted him a monopoly on the importation of aniseed and sumac into England. His success continued as he neared retirement. He was viewed, at least outwardly, as being a dutiful practicing Protestant.In October of 1593, he was wealthy and generally respected. At that time, he owned a house in Holborn and had a son enrolled at Winchester College. However, also in October, a complex web of conspiracy against Dom António began to come to light. Subsequently, Lopez was accused by Robert Devereux of conspiring with Spanish emissaries to poison the Queen. He was arrested on January 1, 1594, convicted in February, and subsequently executed (hanged, drawn and quartered) on June 7. The Queen herself was uncertain of his guilt (hence the delay in his execution) and he maintained his innocence of treason and his being converted from Judaism to Christianity until his execution. According to William Camden, right before he was hanged he said to the crowd that he loved his queen as well as he loved Jesus Christ; the crowd laughed at this statement, taking it for a thinly veiled confession, as in their eyes he was still a Jew.Some historians and literary critics consider Lopez and his trial to have been an influence on William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. "Many Shakespearean scholars believe Dr. Lopez was the prototype for Shylock.", which is believed to have been written between 1594 and 1597, though the play undoubtedly relies more on Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta. Marlowe also loosely mentions him in the first, unrevised script for The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, comparing him to the titular hero: "Doctor Lopus was never such a doctor!".
Rodrigo de Triana (born 1469 in Sevilla, Spain) was a Spanish sailor and the first European since the Vikings known to have seen America. Born as Juan Rodrigo Bermejo, Triana was the son of hidalgo and potter Vicente Bermejo and Sereni Betancour. His father may have been murdered during the Spanish Inquisition.On October 12, 1492, while in the crow's nest of Christopher Columbus's ship La Pinta, he sighted land of the Americas. After spotting America at approximately two o'clock in the morning, he is reported to have shouted "¡Tierra! ¡Tierra!" (land! land!) Columbus claims in his journal that he saw "light" at 10PM the previous day, "but it was so indistinct that he did not dare to affirm it was land".Triana went without reward and credit for this find. According to Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, he moved to Africa and converted to Islam following his unrewarded discovery.
Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre (22 November 1901 – 6 July 1999) was a composer of classical music and a virtuoso pianist. Despite being blind from an early age, he achieved great success. Rodrigo is considered to be among the composers most responsible for popularizing classical guitar music in the twentieth century, and his Concierto de Aranjuez is one of the pinnacles of the Spanish music and guitar concerto repertoire.
Rodrigo Lacerda Ramos (born October 6, 1980 in São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil) is a Brazilian footballer currently playing for Japan's J. League side Jubilo Iwata. He plays as a midfielder. His previous clubs include Palmeiras, AEK Athens, Atlético Mineiro, AC Ajaccio and RC Strasbourg.
Rodrigo Prujanski dos Santos (born September 18, 1981 in Rio de Janeiro) is a water polo player from Brazil. Nicknamed Shalom he competed in two consecutive Pan American Games for his native country, starting in 2003. Dos Santos won two silver medals at this event with the Brazil men's national water polo team.
Rodrigo Juliano Lopes de Almeida (born 7 August 1976), usually called Rodrigo, is a Brazilian footballer who currently plays for Boavista Sport Club. During his career he has played for Portuguesa Santista, Guarani, Gama, Botafogo, Everton, Atlético-MG, Corinthians, Juventude, Paranaense, Vasco da Gama, and Paraná.
Rodrigo is an opera in three acts composed by George Frideric Handel. Its original title was Vincer se stesso è la maggior vittoria ("To overcome oneself is the greater victory"). The opera is based on the historical figure of Rodrigo, the last Visigothic king of Hispania. The libretto was based on the work of Francesco Silvani, II duello d'amore e di vendetta ("The conflict between love and revenge"). Dating from 1707, it was his first opera written for performance in Italy, and the first performance is taken to have occurred in Florence late in 1707.The opera was revived properly only in 1984, in Innsbruck, after a lost fragment from Act III was found. Later productions have been given in London (1985) and Karlsruhe (1987).