When Montezuma Met Cortes

by Matthew Restall

  Montezuma was born in 1468, the son of Axayacatl, and became huey tlahtoani of the Aztec Empire in 1502 (the ninth tlahtoani of Tenochtitlan). He ruled until his death at the end of June 1520, when war broke out in his capital city—he was either assassinated by his own subjects or (more likely) murdered by conquistadors. The evidence suggests that he was a strong, expansionist emperor, despite the evolution after his death of a contrary reputation whereby he was made a scapegoat for Aztec defeat. My argument that Montezuma did not surrender to the Spaniards, despite their claim, is central to this book. His surviving children and their descendants played core roles in the rule of Tenochtitlan and central Mexico after the war (see the Dynastic Vine). (His name is explained above.)

  Pánfilo de Narváez was a tall, redheaded nobleman from a small town near Cuéllar who settled on Hispaniola around 1498. He played leading roles in the Spanish conquest campaigns on Jamaica and Cuba. In the latter, he was responsible for a massacre of Taíno villagers, condemned by the famous Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas, who wrote that Narváez acted “as if made of marble” in the face of atrocity. He is best known for two failures (which, arguably, make him a typical conquistador). First, in 1520, on behalf of his longtime ally Diego de Velázquez, he led 1,100 men to Mexico to arrest Cortés and assume command of the conquistadors there; instead his men joined the Cortés-led company, and a month later most of them were killed by Aztecs. Second, in 1527 he led a company to the northern Gulf coast of Mexico, ending up accidentally in Florida; only Álvaro Cabeza de Vaca and three or four others (Narváez not among them) lived to tell the tale.

  Cristóbal de Olid, born in Baeza in 1488, landed in Cuba in 1518 in time to join the Cortés-led company to Mexico, where he fought and survived the entire war. He was not a man of subtlety: he liked to wade, wielding his sword, into indigenous warriors and crowds (“a Hector” of hand-to-hand combat, said Bernal Díaz); his shifts between Cortesian and Velazquista factions were clumsy and, eventually, the death of him. One of the chief captains of the Vera Cruz plot, he was a councilman (regidor) for the imaginary town; then in 1521 he was caught plotting with Julián de Alderete (the man apparently behind the torture of Cuauhtemoc) to assassinate Cortés; he then fought in Michoacán, before leading a conquest expedition to Honduras—ostensibly in Cortés’s name—but he stopped in Cuba en route to plot with Velázquez, resulting in two Cortés loyalists disemboweling him in Honduras in 1524.

  Diego de Ordaz, a native of León, landed in the Indies in 1510, already thirty-two years old, tall, and brave (said Díaz), with a short black beard and a slight stammer. He joined various companies, including those to Cuba and Mexico—where he was a leading captain. A loyal Velazquista through the early weeks of plotting on the Gulf coast, once he saw which way the wind was blowing he permanently joined the Cortés faction (although in letters to his nephew he was candidly critical, most famously remarking that “the marquis has no more of a conscience than a dog”). He climbed Popocatepetl during the 1519 march to Tenochtitlan, claiming to come within two lances’ length of the volcano’s rim; his coat of arms thus featured a volcano design. He played a lead role in the Tepeaca campaign and massacre, holding official posts there through the 1520s. He missed the siege, spending a year starting October 1520 in Spain. He was there twice more (while receiving income from tens of thousands of indigenous Mexicans), until receiving in 1530 royal license to conquer the Orinoco River region—where the local environment and people gave him no less trouble than Spanish rivals, one of whom probably fatally poisoned him en route to Spain in 1532.

  Gonzalo de Sandoval was from Cortés’s hometown of Medellín. He was (according to Díaz) stocky, with chestnut hair and beard, a slight lisp, and a reputation as a fine horseman. Despite his youth, he emerged from the Vera Cruz politicking as one of the dominant captains: he was one of the four councilmen (regidors) of that imaginary town; he was primarily responsible for winning over the Narváez company in 1520; and he played a (arguably, the) leading role in coordinating with the Tlaxcalteca and Tetzcoca forces in the 1521 campaign to take Tenochtitlan. Although he seemed to have diplomatic rapport with Ixtlilxochitl and other Nahua leaders, he was a plunderer and enslaver like his fellow conquistadors, involved in the massacres around Tepeaca and on the 1523 Huastec campaign (which he commanded). He accompanied Cortés to Honduras in 1524–26, and then to Spain in 1528—falling ill on the voyage and dying upon arrival.

  Tecuichpochtzin, aka doña Isabel Moctezuma Tecuichpo (see the Dynastic Vine), was Montezuma’s most important daughter, by virtue of her royal lineage on her mother’s side and her survival of the war. Supposedly “offered” to Cortés by Montezuma during the months of the Phoney Captivity (see Chapter 8) but rejected (presumably because she was still a child), she remained in Tenochtitlan after the Noche Triste; there she was betrothed to Cuitlahua and, after his death, Cuauhtemoc. Surviving the war, she married three conquistadors in succession: Alonso de Grado, Pedro Gallego, and Juan Cano. Meanwhile, Cortés impregnated her (while she was married to Gallego, according to Vásquez de Tapia); their daughter, Leonor, born in 1523, married a Spaniard. Tecuichpochtzin was given Tlacopan, of the Aztec Empire’s Triple Alliance, in encomienda (a Spanish kind of lordship giving broad access to labor and tribute payments) and confirmed in many other privileges and properties related to her royal inheritance. She had five children by Cano, who vigorously defended her estates in the courts. She died in 1551.

  Bernardino Vásquez de Tapia was born into a well-connected family in the Oropesa region of Castile. In his late teens he was with Pedrarias de Ávila in what is now Panama, and with Diego Velázquez in the invasion of Cuba. He held the important office of alférez real (royal ensign) on the Grijalva expedition, was a leading captain in the Spanish-Aztec War, and was a core pro-Cortés plotter—serving as councilman (regidor) of Vera Cruz in 1519. He survived the war to serve as a regidor of Mexico City—eventually a life appointment, until his death in 1559. He received lucrative Nahua towns in encomienda, including Huitzilopochco (Churubusco), and part of Tlaxcallan. In the 1520s he participated in campaigns into Pánuco and elsewhere, and twice returned to Spain; in Seville in 1527 he spent a short time in jail, due to an accusation by Cortés that he had withheld money. Thereafter he grew increasingly hostile to Cortés—and to Alvarado, whose cohort he had helped to lead in the war. Starting in 1529, he testified to excesses by both men, including cheating the Crown of its quinto (its 20 percent in taxes), illegally enslaving tens of thousands of indigenous women and children, and starting unprovoked massacres (by Alvarado during Toxcatl, and by Cortés at Cholollan and Tepeaca). He is not to be confused with the many other Tapias (including Andrés de Tapia, a relative of Velázquez’s who became an unswerving Cortés loyalist, giving oft-quoted hyperbolic pro-Cortés testimony and in 1539 writing his own account of the first half of the Spanish-Aztec War).

  Diego Velázquez was born in 1465 and accompanied Columbus on his second voyage of 1493 to the New World. He rose to become the conqueror and then (de facto) governor of the island of Cuba, invaded and settled in 1511–14. He was the organizer and adelantado (holder of the conquest license) of increasingly large expeditions to the Mesoamerican mainland in 1517 (under Hernández de Córdoba), 1518 (under Grijalva), 1519 (under Cortés), and 1520 (under Narváez). His betrayal by the men of the 1519 and 1520 companies, and the political campaign by Cortés and his faction to secure governmental control in Mexico, fueled a bitter feud between Cortesian and Velazquista factions that outlasted Velázquez’s death in 1524.

  Xicotencatl was a young warrior captain and royal heir in Tlaxcallan in 1519 when the Spanish conquistadors first fought, and then came to terms with, his home city-state. His father, also Xicotencatl and a tlahtoani of Tlaxcallan, was a chief architect of the alliance with the Spaniards that allowed the Tlaxcalteca to expand their regional authority during the war of 1519–21. But Xicotencatl the son (or the Younger, or Axayacatl), despite playing an important role as a leader in the w
ar, had doubts about the Faustian bargain with the foreigners, and in the spring of 1521 supposedly attempted to withdraw his men from the Spanish-Tetzcoco alliance; Cortés alleged a conspiracy, and Xicotencatl was hanged. More likely he was the victim of Tlaxcalteca factionalism. Viewed as a traitor in colonial sources, he is remembered today as a cultural hero in Tlaxcala and Mexico.

  FOR ADDITIONAL INSIGHT INTO the kinship and marriage ties of the Aztec royal family in Tenochtitlan and Tetzcoco—and some of their ties to Spanish conquistadors and settlers—see the Dynastic Vine that follows.

  This diagram presents the family trees of the royal families of Tenochtitlan (left, moving right) and Tetzcoco (right, moving left). It is designed to illustrate three phenomena central to the history of the Spanish-Aztec War and its aftermath: the extent of intermarriage between the two families, creating a single royal Aztec dynasty; the persistence of that dynasty in the rulership of Tenochtitlan and Tetzcoco through the war and into the next century; and the gradual insertion of Spanish men (indicated with a boxed S) and women (a circled S) into the dynasty. Note that the “vine” is not comprehensive (hundreds of spouses and children are not included here).

  Diagram: The Dynastic Vine

  Bibliography of References and Sources

  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

  THE TWO BIBLIOGRAPHIES BELOW constitute a comprehensive list of the sources I consulted in writing this book; all of them can also be found cited in the notes. Because many of the early printed sources are very rare, hard-to-find books, I have indicated in which library I found copies of all rare books listed below under “Primary Sources.” I have treated most books published before the somewhat arbitrary date of 1940 as “Primary,” and most items published before 1920 as rare. As this book’s arguments reflect, the historian’s dividing line between primary and secondary sources, normally solid, is here very blurred—because the topic’s history and its protagonists have had complex posthumous lives for five centuries.

  Note that I only cite the libraries where I consulted such copies (and in the order I did so); I do not cite all libraries holding copies of such books. Most of the research (and much of the writing) for the project was done in the AGI, BL, MQB, and above all in the JCB (all abbreviations listed below). The archives and libraries listed below were visited on-site unless otherwise indicated.

  There are inevitably sources I did not consult, either because they could not be found or did not come to my attention; there is, after all, half a millennium of written and visual material on this subject. In other words, this is not a bibliography of everything written on all topics relevant to the book. But I consulted whatever I could get my hands on, and I hope it is a representative body of work.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY OF REFERENCES: PRIMARY SOURCES AND ABBREVIATIONS

  AGI Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain

  AGN Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico City, Mexico

  BL British Library, London, England

  BLY Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, USA

  BM British Museum, London, England

  BnF Bibliothèque national de France, Paris, France

  CA Codex Aubin in BM (item # Am2006, Drg.31219; available online; also see Lockhart 1993: 274–79)

  CC Cedulario cortesiano (see Arteaga Garza and Pérez San Vicente 1949)

  CCR Cortés’s Cartas de relación, or Letters to the King; translations mine from first editions (Cortés 1522, etc.) and the 1528 manuscript in Codex Vindobonensis, SN1600, ONB (also Cortés 1960 [1519–25])

  CDHM Colección de Documentos para la Historia de México (see García Icazbalceta 1858–66)

  CDII Colección de documentos inéditos de Indias (see Torres de Mendoza et al. 1864–84)

  CI Cedulario Indiano (see Anonymous 1596)

  CSL-Sac California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, USA

  CSL-SL Sutro Library, California State Library, San Francisco, USA

  DC Documentos Cortesianos (see Martínez 1991)

  DCM Dictionnaire des Conquistadores de Mexico (see Grunberg 2001)

  DHM Documentos para la Historia de México (see López Rayon 1852–53)

  EC Estudios Cortesianos: Recopilados con motivo del IV centenario de la muerte de Hernán Cortés (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1948)

  ENE Epistolario de Nueva España (see Paso y Troncoso 1939–42)

  FC Florentine Codex (see Sahagún 1950–82 for all references to Books I through XI [FC, I–XI]; Lockhart 1993 for all references to Book XII [FC, XII]; and Sahagún 1989 [1585] for references to the revised Book XII)

  HAHR Hispanic American Historical Review

  JCB John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence, USA

  Ix13 Ixtlilxochitl’s Thirteenth Relation (see Ixtlilxochitl 1969; 2015; but all references are to the English translation in Brian, Benton, and García Loaeza 2015)

  LCDT Las Casas’s De Thesauris (cited by folio number; see Las Casas 1561b)

  LCHI Las Casas’s History of the Indies (cited by original book and chapter, but also see below under Las Casas the manuscript and various editions consulted and variously cited)

  LML-H Loeb Music Library, Harvard University (accessible through harvard.edu/libraries/loebmusic)

  LOC Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA

  MQB Musée du quai Branly (médiathèque), Paris, France

  NCDHM Nueva Colección de Documentos para la Historia de México (see García Icazbalceta 1886–92)

  ONB Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Austria

  PRT Documents collected by Pérez-Rocha and Tena (2000)

  PSU-SC Pennsylvania State University, Special Collections Library, University Park, PA, USA

  PTM Proyecto Templo Mayor, or Great Temple archaeological project in central Mexico City, 1978–present

  RC Residencia and Pesquisa Secreta investigation (1526–45) into Cortés by Crown officials; original documents in the AGI; excerpts published in DC and DHM

  WWC Who’s Who of the Conquistadors (see Thomas 2000)

  BIBLIOGRAPHY OF REFERENCES: PRINTED PRIMARY SOURCES (HISTORICAL AND LITERARY)

  Aa, Pieter vander. 1706–1708. Naaukeurige versameling der gedenkwaardigste zee en land-reysen na Oost en West-Indiën. 28 vols. Leiden: Pieter vander Aa. [1st ed.; Dutch version of Herrera’s Historia General; see Herrera 1728; in JCB.]

  Abbott, John S. C. 1904 [1856]. Makers of History: Hernando Cortez. New York: Harper and Brothers. [In CSL-SL.]

  Acosta, José de. 2002 [1590]. Natural and Moral History of the Indies. Jane E. Mangan, ed. Frances López-Morillas, trans. Durham: Duke University Press.

  Aguilar, fray Francisco de. 1938 [c.1560]. Historia de la Nueva España. Alfonso Teja Zabre, ed. Mexico City: Ediciones Botas.

  ———. 1977 [c.1560]. Relación breve de la conquista de la Nueva España. Jorge Gurría Lacroix, ed. Mexico City: UNAM.

  ———. 1988 [c.1560]. Relación breve de la conquista de la Nueva España. In J. Díaz, A. Tapia, B. Vásquez, and F. Aguilar, La conquista de Tenochtitlán. Germán Vásquez, ed. Madrid: historia 16, pp. 155–206.

  Anonymous. 1522. Newe Zeitung, von dem Lande, das die Spanier funden haben ym 1521 Iare genant Jucatan. Augsburg. [1st ed.; in JCB.]

  ———. 1522. Ein Schöne Newe Zeytung so Kayserlich Mayestet aus India yetz nemlich zukommen seind. Augsburg: Sigmund Grimm. [1st ed.; in JCB.]

  Anonymous [uno gentil’homo del Signor Fernando Cortese; el Conquistador Anónimo]. n.d. [1556]. “Relatione di Alcune Cose della Nuova Spagna [Relación de Algunas Cosas de la Nueva España].” In Giovanni Battista Ramusio, Navigationi et Viaggi. Venice: Giunti. [1st ed.; in JCB. Spanish editions cited are CDHM, vol. I, pp. 368–98; and Bustamante 1986.]

  Anonymous. 1596. Libro Quarto de Provisiones, Cedulas, Capitulos, de ordenanças, instruciones, y cartas [etc.; aka Cedulario Indiano, vol. IV]. Madrid: Imprenta Real. [In LOC.]

  Anonymous. 1741. The American Traveller; Being a Ne
w Historical Collection Carefully compiled from Original Memoirs in several Languages, And the most authentic Voyages and Travels [etc.]. London: J. Fuller. [In BL and JCB.]

  Anonymous. 1760–61. The World displayed; or, a Curious Collection of Voyages and Travels, Selected from the Writers of all Nations. 20 vols. London: J. Newberry. [In JCB.]

  Anonymous. 1858 [1550s]. Vida de Hernan Cortés [De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii]. Latin transcription and Spanish translation in CDHM, vol. I, pp. 309–57.

  Anonymous. 1999 [1826]. Xicoténcatl: An anonymous historical novel about the events leading up to the conquest of the Aztec Empire. Guillermo I. Castillo-Feliú, trans. Austin: University of Texas Press.

  Apiano, Pedro. 1575. La Cosmographia de Pedro Apiano, corregida y añadida por Gemma Frisio, Medico y Mathematico. Antwerp: Juan Bellero al Aguila de Oro. [In JCB.]

  Argensola, Bartolomé Leonardo de. 1940 [1620s?]. La Conquista de México. Joaquín Ramírez Cabañas, ed. Mexico City: Pedro Robredo.

  Arteaga Garza, Beatriz, and Guadalupe Pérez San Vicente, eds. 1949. Cedulario cortesiano. Mexico City: Editorial Jus.

  Austen, Jane. 1818. Northanger Abbey. London: Murray.

  Bacon, Francis. 1973 [1612]. Essays. London: Dent.

  Baird, Ellen T. 1993. The Drawings of the Sahagún’s Primeros Memoriales: Structure and Style. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

  Barker, George. n.d. [1960s?] The Degradations of Guatemozin. Play, in original typescript with handwritten corrections by the playwright. [In BL.]

  Beauvois, E. 1885. Les Deux Quetzalcoatl Espagnols: J. de Grijalva et F. Cortés. Louvain: Ch. Peeters. [In MQB.]

  Berdan, Frances and Patricia Reiff Anawalt, eds. 1992. The Codex Mendoza. 4 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  Bird, Robert Montgomery. 1835. The Infidel; or, The Fall of Mexico. A Romance. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard. [In BLY.]