When Montezuma Met Cortes
Page 1
Map: The Caribbean and Mesoamerica at the Time of the Spanish-Aztec War
Dedication
To
all the
Catalinas
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Map: The Caribbean and Mesoamerica at the Time of the Spanish-Aztec War
Dedication
Preface
Timeline
Prologue: Invention
Part I
Chapter 1: Mysterious Kindness
Chapter 2: No Small Amazement
Part II
Chapter 3: Social Grace and Monstrous Ritual
Chapter 4: The Empire in His Hands
Part III
Chapter 5: The Greatest Enterprises
Chapter 6: Principal Plunderers
Part IV
Chapter 7: The Epic Boxer
Chapter 8: Without Mercy or Purpose
Epilogue: Halls of the Montezumas
Acknowledgments
Appendix: Language and Label, Cast and Dynasty
Bibliography of References and Sources
Notes
Index
Photo Section
About the Author
Also by Matthew Restall
Copyright
About the Publisher
MEETINGS. This engraving ran as a banner across the top of the first page of the first chapter of John Ogilby’s great America: Being an Accurate Description of the New World, first published in 1670 in London. The image lacked a title (“Meetings” is my invention), nor were those portrayed identified by name; for this is a generic representation of Native American and European leaders, armies, cultures, and of the supposedly peaceful meeting of civilization with barbarism.
Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.
Preface
The Conquest of MEXICO is one of the greatest Subjects in all History.
—Opening line of the preface to the 1724 English edition of Antonio de Solís’s History of the Conquest of Mexico1
WHAT MAKES THE “CONQUEST OF MEXICO” SO GREAT A SUBJECT? There is no shortage of answers to that question. For half a millennium, the story of the invasion of the Aztec Empire by Spanish conquistadors has consistently inspired and fascinated writers and readers, playwrights and audiences, painters and filmmakers. For many, the story’s greatness has religious, political, or cultural foundations. For others, the tale is worth telling again and again because it is simply a ripping good yarn.
In contrast, and somewhat perversely, I have written this book because I believe the “Conquest of Mexico” is not great; at least, not in the sense that it has overwhelmingly been seen for the past five centuries. I have therefore tried to make this book more than just another telling of the same story. The story is told, to be sure, but the book is more concerned with how and why so many have seen it as “one of the greatest Subjects”—and how wrong they have been. That is a bold conceit, but it has a purpose. Whether you know nothing at all about Aztecs and conquistadors, or you are an expert on them, this is intended as a book for you. Because in the end I hope to persuade everyone who turns these pages that adjectives other than greatest—monumental but misunderstood, dramatic yet distorted, tragic not triumphal—are better applied to this history. And because I’m challenging the superlative nature of “the Conquest” (and the conquistador captain most famously associated with it), I imply that such adjectives might also be applied to other histories, if not to “all History.” After all, the Spanish-Aztec meeting is a central chapter in the larger story of the European invasion of the Americas, leading to the transformation of global history and the making of today’s world.
Before beginning, some explanations, scene-settings, and a timeline of key events may be useful.
I use the terms Aztec, Mexica (pronounced “mesh-EE-ka”), and Nahuas (“NA-wahs”) to refer to specific groups of people within the Aztec Empire. Some scholars refer to the empire as the Triple Alliance, in order to emphasize the roles played in the empire’s creation and maintenance by its three dominant cities: Tenochtitlan (the city of the Mexica, and the empire’s great island-capital), Tetzcoco (an equally splendid lakeside city), and Tlacopan (smaller but also significant); I use the phrase too (sometimes as “the Triple Alliance of the Aztec Empire”). Further explanation of ethnic terminology is included in the Appendix, along with a diagram aimed at helping those more visually oriented (I am one of you).
With respect to the names of the book’s central protagonists, I follow sixteenth-century usage and call Hernando Cortés just that, although “Fernando” is more accurate. He was never called Hernán, which is a modern rendering (“Cortez” is forgivable as an English version that goes back to the mid-sixteenth century). Although I follow conventional Spanish spellings for Spanish personal names and toponyms (for example, Velázquez), I do not put Spanish accents on Nahua ones (for example Tenochtitlán and Cuauhtémoc have accents in Spanish, but not in English; besides, their pronunciation in Nahuatl is uninflected).
As for the emperor of the Aztecs, it was tempting to render his name as accurately as possible, as Moteuctzomatzin (pronounced, roughly, “moh-teh-ook-tsoh-mah-tseen”). But for the ease of the reader, I chose “Montezuma.” It is a convenient, familiar shorthand (like “Aztec”) that originated in Spanish, English, and other languages in the late sixteenth century (perhaps even earlier). An early variant was “Moctezuma,” the conventional form in modern Spanish, perfectly acceptable in English too.
A third person whose name requires some explanation is Malintzin. The original Nahua name of this interpreter to the Cortésled invasion force, or company, is unknown, but Spaniards renamed her Marina. The importance of her role gave her a status that justified her soon being given the honorific -tzin in Nahuatl. In Spanish, she received the equivalent, the doña prefix. As a result, she was variously called doña Marina, Malintzin (as Nahuas tended to turn an r to an l), and Malinche (a Hispanization of Malintzin).
Cortés, Montezuma, and Malintzin are three of the sixteen Spanish and Nahua protagonists in the Spanish-Aztec War whose short biographies I have included in the Appendix. You may find it helpful to refer to those biographies when Aztecs like Cacama and Cuauhtemoc, and conquistadors like Ordaz and Olid, appear and then reappear in the chapters to follow. I have also created a kind of family tree, which I have called a Dynastic Vine (in the Appendix), that shows how kinship and marriage tied together the branches of the Aztec royal family in Tenochtitlan and Tetzcoco—and then tied them to Spanish conquistadors.
Timeline
1428
Foundation in the Valley of Mexico of the Triple Alliance of the Aztec Empire (centered on Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan)
1440–69
The first Montezuma (Moteuctzoma Ilhuicamina) rules as huey tlahtoani of Tenochtitlan (i.e., as Aztec emperor)
1468
Birth of the second Montezuma (Moteuctzoma Xocoyotl); Axayacatl, Montezuma’s father, rules as huey tlahtoani until 1481; he and two of his brothers head a generational cohort that will rule until the younger Montezuma takes the throne in 1502
1481–86
Tizoc, Montezuma’s uncle, rules as huey tlahtoani
1482–92
War of Isabella, queen of Castile, against the Moorish kingdom of Granada, ending with Boabdil’s surrender to her and Fernando, king of Aragon
1486
Ahuitzotl, uncle and predecessor to Montezuma, elected huey tlahtoani
1492–93
First voyage, under Columbus (Cristóbal Colón), to reach the Caribbean and return to Europe
1493–96
Second Columbus voyage resulting in first Spanish col
ony in the Indies, on the island of Hispaniola (today’s Haiti and Dominican Republic)
1502
September 15, Montezuma elected huey tlahtoani
1503–09
Series of Aztec conquest campaigns in Oaxaca and other southern regions
1504
Cortés, age nineteen, arrives in Hispaniola; Queen Isabella dies (her four-year-old son, Carlos, will ascend to the thrones of Castile and Aragon when King Fernando dies in 1516)
1511
The Spanish viceroy in the Indies, Columbus’s son Diego Colón, appoints Diego Velázquez to invade and govern Cuba
1515
Nezahualpilli, the tlahtoani (king) of Tetzcoco, dies and is succeeded by Cacama (with his brother Ixtlilxochitl in revolt)
1517
February 8–April 20, Francisco Hernández de Córdoba leads Spanish expedition from Cuba, explores and battles Maya forces along Yucatec coast
1518
May 3–November 15, Juan de Grijalva leads Spanish expedition from Cuba, explores and interacts with indigenous groups on Yucatec and Gulf coasts; October 23, Cortés appointed head of a third expedition, tasked with finding Grijalva and continuing to explore
1519
February 10, expedition company under Hernando Cortés leaves Cuba, follows coastal route taken by Córdoba and Grijalva; Malintzin joins the company in Tabasco
April 21, expedition lands on the Gulf coast, at San Juan de Ulúa, within the tribute-paying zone of the Aztec Empire
May, Vera Cruz (the first of three towns of that name, moved to another site in 1521) founded by the company, which appoints Cortés as leading captain
June 3–August 16, expedition camps in Cempohuallan; the nineteen-year-old Spanish king becomes the Holy Roman Emperor Carlos V
July 26, Cortés and other leading captains send a ship to Spain
August 16, Spanish-indigenous force begins march inland
September 2, Spanish-Tlaxcalteca hostilities begin
September 23, having been offered a peace treaty, the Spaniards enter Tlaxcallan
October 10–11, Spanish-Tlaxcalteca expedition marches from Tlaxcallan to Cholollan
October 14–18, massacre in Cholollan
October c. 25, Spanish-Tlaxcalteca expedition leaves for Tenochtitlan
November 8, the Meeting of Cortés and Montezuma
November 14, Cortés later claims to have taken Montezuma captive on this date (disputed in this book)
1520
April 20 (or by May 1), large Spanish company under Pánfilo de Narváez lands at San Juan de Ulúa
May c. 16, Alvarado leads massacre of Aztec nobles during the Festival of Toxcatl in Tenochtitlan
May c. 27–28, Cortés loyalists under Sandoval reach Narváez’s camp at Cempohuallan and successfully attack it
June 24, enlarged Spanish force returns to Tenochtitlan
June 28, 29, or 30, Montezuma killed, along with the other triple tlatoque rulers (kings of the Triple Alliance of the Aztec Empire)
June 30 or July 1, in what is later called the Noche Triste (Tragic Night), the Spanish-Tlaxcalteca force flees Tenochtitlan; close to a thousand Spaniards and well over a thousand Tlaxcalteca are killed
July 9 or 10, series of skirmishes, battles, and Aztec attacks culminate in the Battle of Otumba (near Otompan)
July 11 or 12, the fleeing survivors reach Tlaxcallan
August 1, Spaniards massacre the men and enslave the women and children of Tepeyacac (Tepeaca)
September c. 15, coronation of Montezuma’s brother, Cuitlahua, as tenth huey tlahtoani of Tenochtitlan
Mid-October to mid-December, smallpox epidemic kills many (some claim a third or half; disputed here) in Tenochtitlan (including Cuitlahua on December 4)
December 25–31, Spaniards march back to Valley of Mexico, met by Ixtlilxochitl on the 28th, enter the valley on the 29th and Tetzcoco on the 31st
1521
Late January or early February, Cuauhtemoc (a nephew of predecessors Montezuma and Cuitlahua) elected eleventh huey tlahtoani of Tenochtitlan
February, Spanish-Tlaxcalteca-Tetzcoca (allied) attack on Xaltocan, then Tlacopan and its tributaries; Tetzcoco firmly established as base for campaign against Tenochtitlan
April 5–13, allied attacks on Yauhtepec and Cuauhnahuac, which is sacked
April 16–18, allied force defeated in attack on Xochimilco
April 28, thirteen brigantines built by Tlaxcalteca laborers launched onto the lake at Tetzcoco
May: 10th, implementation of siege of Tenochtitlan begins; 22nd, three Tlaxcalteca-Tetzcoca-Spanish forces, with conquistadors led by Alvarado, Olid, and Sandoval, leave Tetzcoco to take up positions surrounding the island-city; 26th, potable water to the city cut off; 31st, Sandoval and Olid join forces at Coyohuacan
June 30, in a Spanish-Tlaxcalteca defeat on the causeway, sixty-eight Spaniards are captured and executed at the Great Temple
July, ships land at Vera Cruz with hundreds more men, horses, and munitions
July 20–25, battle for great plaza of Tenochtitlan
August 1, Spanish-Tlaxcalteca-Tetzcoca forces enter great plaza of Tlatelolco, where Aztec defenders make their last stand
August 13, Aztec survivors surrender and Cuauhtemoc is captured
August 13–c. 17, invaders massacre, rape, and enslave the survivors, sacking the city
1522
October 15, Carlos V names Cortés governor and captain-general of New Spain
November: 1st, Catalina Suárez, Cortés’s first Spanish wife, dies of unknown causes in Coyohuacan; 8th, his so-called Second Letter is published in Seville
1523
Cortés and Francisco de Garay, Jamaica’s governor, agree that Garay may claim Pánuco (region northeast of central Mexico); December: Garay dies in Coyohuacan; Pedro de Alvarado leads conquest company to Guatemala
1524
Spaniards begin to settle in central Tenochtitlan; January, Cristóbal de Olid leads conquest company to Honduras, but stops in Cuba en route; June, the first two Franciscan friars arrive in Mexico; Olid renounces Cortés’s authority; October, Cortés leaves Mexico for Honduras
1525
February: as in 1520, the captive triple tlatoque are murdered; this time the kings, including Cuauhtemoc, are hanged on Cortés’s orders in the capital of the Maya kingdom of Acalan-Tixchel; don Juan Velázquez Tlacotzin (who had been Montezuma’s cihuacoatl, or viceroy, and had similarly governed Tenochtitlan since 1521) appointed governor of the city; dies later in the year and succeeded by don Andrés de Tapia Motelchiuhtzin
1526
June 25, Cortés returns to Mexico, but July 2, royal official Luis Ponce de León removes Cortés from the governorship and initiates his residencia (administrative inquiry; it will drag on until 1545)
1527
Royal official Estrada bans Cortés from Tenochtitlan
1528
April, Cortés leaves Mexico for Spain; December, fray Juan de Zumárraga arrives as Mexico’s first bishop
1529
Cortés receives title of Marqués del Valle, marries the daughter of the Count of Aguilar; Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán appointed president of the first Audiencia (court of administration and justice) of New Spain
1530–31
Don Andrés de Tapia Motelchiuhtzin, tlahtoani and governor of Tenochtitlan (indigenous Mexico City) is killed in a conquest campaign against Chichimecs, succeeded by don Pablo Tlacatecuhtli Xochiquentzin (a cousin of Montezuma), in turn succeeded by don Diego de Alvarado Huanitzin (a nephew of Montezuma), who rules until 1541; Ixtlilxochitl dies and is succeeded as tlahtoani of Tetzcoco by three of his brothers, each in succession
1530–40
Cortés lives in Mexico, in Cuernavaca, managing his estates run on slave labor and sending a series of expeditions to Baja California and into the Pacific Ocean
1539
First book published in the Americas, a catechism in Nahuatl, printed in Mexico City; don Carlos Ometoc
htzin, brother of the tlatoque of Tetzcoco, burned alive at the stake in Mexico City
1540
Cortés returns to Spain; accompanies Carlos V’s failed campaign to Algiers in 1541; dies near Seville in 1547
1794
Cortés’s remains (brought back from Spain in 1629) reinterred in a new mausoleum in the Hospital de Jesús in Mexico City; mausoleum destroyed in 1823; bones hidden in hospital chapel, where they remain
A CONQUEROR CAPTURES A KING. The engraved title page to Bernal Díaz’s Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España [True History of the Conquest of New Spain], first published in Madrid in 1632. Edited by a Mercedarian, the edition gave prominence to the role played by a friar from that order in baptizing indigenous Mexicans (right of the title). Cortés is on the title’s left; he rests his hand on a cartouche depicting him, backed by his fellow conquistadors, capturing Montezuma and his crown.
Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.
Prologue
Invention
I say and affirm that what is contained in this book is absolutely true.
—Bernal Díaz, preface to the 1632 edition of his True History of the Conquest of New Spain
In [my Poem] I have neither wholly follow’d the Truth of the History, nor altogether left it: but have taken all the liberty of a Poet, to add, alter, or diminish, as I thought might best conduce to the beautifying of my Work. It being not the business of a Poet to represent Historical truth, but probability.
—John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, 1667
I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention.