Hernán Cortés

For other uses, see Hernán Cortés (disambiguation).

Hernán Cortés
Portrait of Hernán Cortés based on the one sent by the conquistador to Paolo Giovio, which served as the model for many of his depictions from the 16th century onward.
Born	Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano 1485 Medellín, Crown of Castile
Died	December 2, 1547 (aged 62) Castilleja de la Cuesta, Crown of Castile
Military career
Allegiance	Spain
Rank	Conquistador, explorer and marquis
Conflicts	Conquest of Mexico
Awards	Marquisate of the Valley of Oaxaca Status: marquis and hidalgo
Signature

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (Medellín, Crown of Castile, 1485 – Castilleja de la Cuesta, Crown of Castile, December 2, 1547) was a Spanish conquistador who, at the beginning of the 16th century, led the expedition that began the conquest of Mexico and brought about the end of the Mexica empire, placing it under the rule of the Crown of Castile, from which the so-called New Spain was created.

He was born in the city of Medellín, Badajoz, Extremadura, into a family of lesser nobility. He decided to seek his fortune in the New World, traveling to Hispaniola and Cuba, where for a short period of time he was Alcalde of the second city founded by the Spaniards during the third expedition to the mainland, which he partially financed. His enmity with the governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, led to the cancellation of the voyage at the last minute, an order that Cortés ignored.

Upon reaching the continent, Cortés carried out a successful strategy of allying himself with certain indigenous groups in order to defeat others. He also made use of a native woman, doña Marina (la Malinche), who served him as interpreter and with whom he had a son. When the governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortés, he confronted and defeated them, while enlisting the troops who had come to arrest him as reinforcements for his expedition. Cortés sent several letters to King Charles I so that his success in the conquest would be recognized instead of his being punished for his mutiny. He was finally granted the title of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, although the more prestigious title of viceroy was given to a high-ranking aristocrat, Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco. In 1541, Cortés returned to Spain, where he died six years later, still carrying his bitterness.

Birth and youth

He was the only son of an hidalgo from Extremadura named Martín Cortés and his wife Catalina Pizarro y Altamirano. Hernán Cortés was a distant relative of Francisco Pizarro, who later conquered the Inca Empire. Like other hidalgos, his father sent him at the age of fourteen to study law in Salamanca, a city he left two years later, driven by his thirst for adventure. These preparatory studies and the practical knowledge of the law that he acquired during his apprenticeship with a notary in Valladolid have given rise to the myth that Cortés studied law at the University of Salamanca.

After several failed attempts, on the one hand to sail for the Indies and, on the other, to take part in the campaigns of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba in Italy, he finally set sail in the spring of 1504 for the island of Hispaniola, where he settled as a planter and colonial official. However, he must have returned to Spain, since on August 29, 1506 his father paid the cost of his passage to Santo Domingo on the nao San Juan Bautista, owned by Luis Fernández Alfaro.

Marriages and descendants

Bust of Hernán Cortés at the Archive of the Indies in Seville

Hernán Cortés married twice and had eleven documented children from six different relationships. His first wife, doña Catalina Suárez Marcaida, died after five years of childless marriage on November 1, 1522, under mysterious circumstances. Before and during this marriage, Cortés had five children out of wedlock:

Portrait of Hernán Cortés in the Museum of the Americas

• Catalina Pizarro, born in 1514 or 1515 in Santiago de Cuba, or perhaps later in New Spain. Her mother was Leonor Pizarro, probably a relative of Cortés. She was legitimized together with her brothers Martín and Luis in a papal bull of Clement VII in 1529.
• Martín Cortés Malintzin, born in Coyoacán in 1522. His mother was La Malinche, Cortés's indigenous companion and translator. He was legitimized together with his siblings Catalina and Luis in a papal bull of Clement VII in 1529.
• Luis Cortés, born in 1525, son of the Spanish woman Antonia or Elvira Hermosillo, who would also be legitimized together with Martín and Catalina. He married Guiomar Vázquez de Escobar, niece of the conquistador Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia.
• Leonor Cortés y Moctezuma, born in 1528 in Mexico City. She was the daughter of Tecuichpo or Ichcaxóchitl, who was baptized with the name doña Isabel de Moctezuma, herself a daughter of Moctezuma II Xocoyotzin. Rejected by her mother from birth, it was her father who later acknowledged her. She married the Basque Juan de Tolosa, conqueror of Zacatecas.
• María Cortés, daughter of a Mexica princess whose name is unknown. Bernal Díaz del Castillo mentions that she was born with some deformity.

In April 1528 Cortés married for the second time, to Juana Ramírez de Arellano y Zúñiga, daughter of the 1st Count of Aguilar and maternal niece of the 1st Duke of Béjar. Juana settled in the town of Cuernavaca, living in the palace built in 1526. Six children were born of this marriage:

• Luis Cortés y Ramírez de Arellano, born in Texcoco in 1530, who died shortly after birth.
• Catalina Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca in 1531, who died shortly after birth.
• Martín Cortés y Ramírez de Arellano, born in Cuernavaca in 1532. Successor of his father as 2nd Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca.
• María Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca between 1533 and 1536. Her father had arranged her marriage to Álvar Pérez Osorio, son of the 4th Marquis of Astorga; however, they canceled it at the last moment, causing Cortés great anger, which it is even presumed brought on the illness from which he died. María later married Luis Fernández de Quiñones y Pimentel, 5th Count of Luna.
• Catalina Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca between 1533 and 1536. She died unmarried in Seville after her father's death.
• Juana Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca between 1533 and 1536. In 1564 she married Fernando Enríquez de Ribera, 2nd Duke of Alcalá.

Military career

Cuba

In 1511 he took part in the expedition for the conquest of Cuba led by the governor Diego de Velázquez, from whom he received lands and slaves on the island. He came to be appointed alcalde of Santiago de Cuba, although he was later imprisoned by the governor, accused of conspiring against him. Once freed, he married the sister-in-law of Diego Velázquez himself, named Catalina Juárez.

At the end of 1518 Velázquez entrusted him with the command of the third expedition, after those of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba and Juan de Grijalva, to continue his discoveries on the coast of Yucatán. But Velázquez soon grew distrustful of him.

Bernal Díaz del Castillo, author of the True History of the Conquest of New Spain, relates that a jester of Velázquez, called Cervantes the madman, said to his lord, in the manner of jesters: "Hurrah for my master Diego, Diego, what captain have you chosen? He is from Medellín in Extremadura, a captain of great [renown]. But I fear, Diego, that he will rise up against you with the fleet, for I judge him to be a very great man in his affairs."

Hernán Cortés nevertheless continued with the preparations for the expedition and soon managed to recruit more than 600 men for his cause.

The conquest of the Mexica Empire

Main article: Conquest of Mexico

Expedition of Hernán Cortés from Cuba to Tenochtitlan.

Anticipating his dismissal by Diego Velázquez, Cortés's fleet hastily left the port of Santiago de Cuba on November 18, 1518. As it was short of supplies, it had to provision itself at the port of Trinidad and other places.

Finally, on February 10, 1519, the fleet left the coasts of Cuba. That fleet consisted of 11 ships, with 518 infantrymen, 16 horsemen, 13 arquebusiers, 32 crossbowmen, 110 sailors and some 200 Indians and Black men as troop auxiliaries. They carried 32 horses, 10 bronze cannons and four falconets. The captains were Alonso Hernández Portocarrero (to whom he would later give the Indian woman doña Marina), Alonso Dávila, Diego de Ordás, Francisco de Montejo, Francisco de Morla, Francisco de Saucedo, Juan de Escalante, Juan Velázquez de León (a relative of the governor), Cristóbal de Olid, Gonzalo de Sandoval and Pedro de Alvarado. Many of them were veterans of the war in Italy. The chief pilot was Antón de Alaminos, who had experience from the two previous expeditions of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba and Juan de Grijalva.

First contacts with the inhabitants

La Malinche translates the language of the Mexica for Cortés. Lienzo de Tlaxcala, 16th century.

His first contact with the Mesoamerican civilizations took place on the island of Cozumel, an important seaport and Maya religious center that was part of the jurisdiction of Ecab, and where the sanctuary dedicated to Ixchel, goddess of fertility, was located. The Spaniards arrived during the Postclassic Period of the Maya civilization, shortly after the fall of Mayapán in 1480, which led to the fragmentation of the Yucatán peninsula into 16 small states, each with its own ruler called a halach uinik, in constant conflict with one another.

Immediately after presenting himself to the batab (local ruler of the city), Cortés asked them to abandon their religion and adopt Christianity, sending his men to destroy the Maya religious idols and to place crosses and images of the Virgin Mary in the temple. A biography of King Charles I written in 1603 recounts the moment as follows:

The islanders were frightened to see that fleet and went into the woods, leaving their houses and estates abandoned. Some Spaniards went inland and found four women with three children and brought them to Cortés, and from the signs of the Indians he had with him, he understood that one of them was the lady of that land and the mother of the children. Cortés treated her well, and she had her husband come there, who ordered that the Spaniards be given good lodgings and be much entertained. And when Cortés saw that they were now reassured and content, he began to preach to them the faith of Christ. He ordered the interpreter he had with him to tell them that he wished to give them another God, better than the one they had. He begged them to worship the Cross and an image of Our Lady, and they said that it pleased them. He took them to their temple and broke their idols and put in their place crosses and images of Our Lady, all of which the Indians held to be good. While Cortés was there they never sacrificed men, which they used to do every day.

— Historia de la vida y hechos del Emperador Carlos V, by Prudencio de Sandoval.

Hernán Cortés used as interpreter a young Maya man taken prisoner on Isla Mujeres, whose name no chronicler of the Indies recorded but whom the Spaniards nicknamed "Melchorejo". Through him he learned of the existence of some bearded men held by a nearby Maya chiefdom and sent emissaries to rescue them. In 1519 they found Gerónimo de Aguilar, a survivor of the shipwreck of the vessel Santa María de la Barca. Aguilar then went to look for another survivor, Gonzalo Guerrero, who lived in Chetumal, where he had managed to escape slavery by winning the trust of the cacique Nachán Can, going on to become a nacom or Maya military chief himself and to marry the Maya princess Zazil Há, with whom he had had several children, today considered the first modern Mexicans. Aguilar decided to return with Cortés, becoming one of his interpreters of Mayan, but Guerrero decided to stay with the Maya and died around 1536. Some historians believe that he fought against the Spanish conquistadors.

The Battle of Centla and the taking of Potonchán

Entry of Hernán Cortés into the Maya city of Potonchán in Tabasco in 1519.

Cortés's expedition continued along the coast guided by the pilot Antón de Alaminos until, on March 14, 1519, it reached the mouth of the Tabasco River (today the Grijalva), near the city of Potonchán (Putunchan), belonging to the Putún or Maya-Chontal group and governed by the "halach uinik" Taabscoob. There the crucial Battle of Centla took place, recounted from the Spanish point of view by López de Gómara in the chapter Combate y toma de Potonchan of his book La conquista de México:

Cortés stepped forward making signs of peace and spoke to them through Jerónimo de Aguilar, begging them to receive them well, for they had not come to do them harm, but to take fresh water and buy food, as men who, traveling by sea, were in need of it; therefore, that they should give it to them, for they would pay for it very courteously.

The authorities of Potonchán ordered that water and food be brought to them so that they would leave. But Cortés maintained that it was not enough and insisted that they let his troops enter the city.

The Indians replied that they did not want advice from people they did not know, much less to take them into their houses, because they seemed to them terrible and domineering men, and that if they wanted water, they should take it from the river or dig wells in the ground, for that is what they themselves did when they needed it. Then Cortés, seeing that words were of no avail, told them that in no way could he refrain from entering the place and seeing that land, in order to take and give an account of it to the greatest lord in the world, who had sent him there; therefore, that they should accept it, for he wished to do it peacefully, and if not, he would commend himself to his God, to his own hands and to those of his companions. The Indians said nothing more than that they should leave, and not attempt to make boasts in a foreign land, because in no way would they allow him to come ashore or enter their town; rather, they warned him that if they did not leave immediately, they would kill him and all who were with him.

Battle of Centla, in which the horse took part in a war in the Americas for the first time. Mural in the Municipal Palace of Paraíso, Tabasco.

The Spaniards then attacked the city on two flanks, producing a bloody battle that ended in the defeat of Potonchán and the entry of Cortés and his men:

The Spaniards searched the houses and found nothing but maize and turkeys, and some cotton goods, and little trace of gold, for there were no more than four hundred warriors inside defending the place. Much Indian blood was shed in the taking of that place, because they fought naked; the wounded were many and the captives few; the dead were not counted. Cortés lodged in the temple of the idols with all the Spaniards, and they fitted very comfortably, because it has a courtyard and some very good and large halls. They slept there that night with a good guard, as in the house of enemies, but the Indians did not dare do anything. In this way Potonchán was taken, which was the first city that Hernán Cortés won by force in what he discovered and conquered.

After the defeat, the authorities of Tabasco made Cortés an offering of provisions, jewels, textiles and a group of twenty female slaves, who were accepted, had their names changed upon being baptized, and were distributed among his men. Among these slaves was one named Malintzin, whom the Spaniards renamed Marina, also known as La Malinche, who would be crucial in the conquest of Mexico. Her great intelligence, her command of the Mayan languages and Nahuatl, her knowledge of the psychology and customs of the Indians, and her loyalty to the Spaniards made la Malinche one of the most extraordinary and controversial women in the history of the Americas. La Malinche was interpreter, adviser and concubine of Hernán Cortés, with whom she would have a son, Martín Cortés, with the same name as the legitimate son whom Hernán Cortés would have fourteen years later with Juana de Zúñiga. Marina and Gerónimo de Aguilar replaced Melchorejo as interpreters, because he had decided to sabotage the Spaniards and was inciting the natives to resist the conquest.

Juana de Zúñiga, Sevillian wife of Hernán Cortés. The sculpture (which was designed this way, with the woman praying and veiled, for her tomb) was commissioned by the Duke of Alcalá from Diego de Pesquera in 1575, together with another statue of Catalina Cortés. Both statues are in the historic Carthusian monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas, in Seville.

Founding of Santa María de la Victoria

Afterward, Cortés went to a great ceiba (considered a sacred tree by the Maya) and, drawing his sword, struck the trunk a few blows and took possession of those lands, founding on March 25, 1519 the town of Santa María de la Victoria, which would be the first Spanish settlement in New Spain and one of the first in the Americas. Immediately the cleric Friar Bartolomé de Olmedo and his chaplain Juan Díaz celebrated the first Christian Mass on the mainland of New Spain and one of the first on the Continent.

...And after dismounting beneath some trees and houses that were there, we gave many thanks to God for having given us so complete a victory; and as it was the day of Our Lady of March, a town that was settled was called Santa María de la Victoria, both because it was the day of Our Lady and because of the great victory we obtained. This was the first war we had in the company of Cortés in New Spain(...) and let us leave him here and I will tell what else befell us.

— Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España

The Spaniards remained there until April 12, when Cortés embarked for Culúa and Tenochtitlan, leaving in the town a handful of soldiers charged with pacifying the region. That year of 1519 a smallpox epidemic would begin, brought unknowingly by the conquistadors, which over the following decades annihilated 97 % of the population of the region and which would facilitate the conquest of Mexico.

Founding of Veracruz and military alliance with Cempoala

View of the main plaza of the ruins of the city of Cempoala, capital of the Totonac Nation, the first to establish a military alliance with the Castilian hosts to attack the lordships of the Triple Alliance or Ēxcān Tlahtolōyān.

In Tabasco, the Spaniards learned of the existence of a country to the west that the Amerindians called "Mexico". The fleet went northwest along the Mexican coast, and one day several Mexica canoes appeared, coming on behalf of Moctezuma, the "tlatoani" or emperor of the Mexica Empire, with its capital in Tenochtitlan. Cortés showed them his firearms and his horses in order, on the one hand, to intimidate them, but on the other hand he tried to be kind and affable with them, speaking to them of peace. The ambassadors brought painters, who drew everything they saw so that the emperor would be faithfully informed and would see what these "teules" were like (a Nahuatl term derived from the Maya "tzules", which referred to entities of the underworld). Moctezuma again sent gifts of jewels and precious objects, but Cortés kept insisting on visiting their emperor, who again denied permission.

Cortés set up his camp opposite the city of Quiahuiztlán, inhabited since ancient times by the Totonacs, and shortly afterward turned it into a city with the name of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz (located 70 km north of present-day Veracruz), because the Spaniards had landed at that spot on a Good Friday.

The new settlers begged Cortés to proclaim himself Captain General, answering directly to the King and not to Velázquez, whose authority over those new lands he did not recognize. After refusing several times, he ended up accepting. He appointed an alcalde, councilmen, constables, a treasurer and a standard-bearer, thus consummating the severance of the authority of the governor of Cuba over the expedition. This act is considered the founding of one of the first European cities on the American mainland.

Cortés then noticed that the Mexica Empire had enemies and that this made his plans easier. He began to devise a strategy aimed at taking advantage of the quarrels and hatreds that a great number of provinces held toward Mexica rule, in order to achieve the conquest of so vast an empire. But to do so he also had to impose his will and his command over the faction of governor Diego de Velázquez, which maintained that Cortés had no authorization to settle, but only to trade and discover, and that they should return to Cuba once the expedition was over. Most of the captains and the troops supported Cortés, since they sensed the great riches that might be found in Tenochtitlan.

The first Mesoamerican nation with which Cortés established a military alliance was the Totonac Culture, with its capital at Cempoala, an advanced city of some 20,000 inhabitants. In mid-1519, thirty Totonac towns met with Cortés in Cempoala to seal the alliance and march together to the conquest of Tenochtitlan. The Totonacs contributed 1,300 warriors to the enterprise of Cortés, who for his part would contribute some 400 Spaniards, firearms and fifteen horses.

The agreement was made on the basis that, once the Mexica Empire was defeated, the Totonac Nation would be free. Nevertheless, after the conquest of Mexico, the Totonacs, decimated by the military alliance and by disease, were never again what they had been. Many of them ended up entrusted as serfs to the Spanish lords on their own lands, particularly in the nascent cultivation of sugarcane, with Cempoala left uninhabited and its culture extinguished and forgotten. The Totonac Culture was rediscovered at the end of the 19th century by the Mexican archaeologist and historian Francisco del Paso y Troncoso.

"Burning" (scuttling) of the ships

News arrived that Diego Velázquez had obtained, through his associates at Court, the appointment as Adelantado of Yucatán, so Cortés sent his loyal Portocarrero and Montejo, with the best of the booty obtained up to then, to obtain the appointment for himself. He also made the decision to disable the ships, except the one Portocarrero was to use in order to maintain direct contact with Spain, so as to prevent any flight by the men who did not support his rebellion against the lawful authority of the governor of Cuba.

Regarding the actual physical way in which the ships were disabled, the sources use the expressions "barrenar" (to bore holes with an auger or drill) and "dar de través" (to capsize, to topple, to turn the ship crosswise in order to beach it). Possibly what was done was a combination of both processes, and in any case it is important to say that the parts of the ships served later purposes that were of decisive importance in the conquest of the Mexica capital.

War and later alliance with Tlaxcala. Cholula massacre

Reconstructed section of the Great Pyramid of Cholula, in present-day San Andrés Cholula (Puebla), where the so-called Cholula massacre took place.

The Cholula massacre, Lienzo de Tlaxcala (1552)

On August 16, 1519, Cortés left the coast and began his march inland, toward the heart of the Mexica Empire, with an army of 1,300 Totonac warriors, 200 Indian porters, 6 cannons, 400 Spanish infantrymen and 15 cavalrymen.

At the end of August Cortés's army reached the territory of the Confederation or Republic of Tlaxcala, made up of four autonomous lordships: Tepeticpac, Ocotelulco, Tizatlán and Quiahuiztlán.

At that time, Tlaxcala and Tenochtitlan represented two opposing conceptions of political organization, which led them into open confrontation. Tlaxcala had organized itself as a confederation of city-states united in a republic governed by a Senate; Mexico-Tenochtitlan, on the contrary, was organized as an empire.

From 1455 onward the Mexica Empire, formed on the basis of the Triple Alliance between Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan, had begun the so-called flower wars against Huejotzingo, Cholula and Tlaxcala, with the aim of capturing prisoners for its religious sacrifices, and these earned it the repudiation of the rest of the indigenous lordships.

It was in these circumstances that Cortés arrived in the territory of Tlaxcala, at the head of his Totonac-Spanish army. Initially the Republic of Tlaxcala, under the command of Xicohténcatl Axayacatzin, denied the invaders passage through its territory, clashing with them on September 2 in the gorge of Tecoantzinco with an outcome favorable to Cortés. The following day a new clash took place on the plains, which was again unfavorable to Tlaxcala, leading to the division of the Republic, with the desertion of the troops of Ocotelulco and Tepeticpac upon realizing that they could not prevail against the 400 Spanish soldiers and their indigenous allies. Outmatched in tactics and military discipline—many of the Spanish soldiers and even of their captains were tercio men and veterans of Italy, the best of Europe at that time—the troops of Xicohténcatl were defeated again and the Senate ordered a halt to the war and offered peace to Cortés. This agreement established the crucial alliance with the Tlaxcaltecs, opponents of the Mexica regime, which had never been able to conquer their territory. Cortés stayed there for several weeks.

On his way to Tenochtitlan Cortés reached Cholula, an ally of the Mexica Empire, which was the second largest city after Mexico-Tenochtitlan, with 30,000 inhabitants. Bernal Díaz del Castillo relates in his chronicle that, after having received Cortés and his enormous army, the authorities of Cholula planned to lay an ambush for him and annihilate the Spaniards. Díaz del Castillo relates that he and the troops saw, beside the temples, poles with collars that he supposed were intended for the Spaniards, to be taken captive to Tenochtitlan. Díaz del Castillo also relates that an old woman and some priests of the temples of Cholula alerted Cortés, who immediately ordered his army to attack, causing what is known as the Cholula massacre, in which more than 5,000 men died in five hours. The contingent remained in Cholula during October and November, and upon leaving Cortés ordered the city to be burned.

He then reached Santa Catarina Ayotzingo, from where he prepared the attack on Tenochtitlan. Upon his arrival at Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Cortés was astonished by the beauty of the place, which is described by Díaz del Castillo as "a dream". On his way from Cholula, Cortés had traveled the road toward the Valley of Mexico, crossing between two volcanoes, Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, until reaching a wooded spot of splendid beauty that to this day bears the name Paso de Cortés. On the other side, he sighted Lake Texcoco for the first time, approaching it from the direction of Xochimilco.

Tenochtitlan

Hernán Cortés, on his march toward Mexico-Tenochtitlan: Cortés's army (some three hundred Spaniards), with the support of some 3,000 Tlaxcaltecs, sighted the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl. And one of Cortés's captains, named Diego de Ordás, was the first European to climb to the summit of the volcano Popocatépetl, in the company of two comrades-in-arms, causing a great impression among the natives accompanying Cortés's expedition. For this feat and for his military merits, the Emperor Charles V granted Diego de Ordás, by a decree issued on October 22, 1523, the right to bear a coat of arms with a view of the volcano.

Meeting of Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma

At the entrance to the city, made on November 8, 1519, the meeting of Moctezuma and Cortés took place, with Doña Marina acting as interpreter. Moctezuma II believed that the Spaniards were envoys of the god who would come from the East—that is, Quetzalcóatl or the Feathered Serpent—and was a splendid host to them, presenting him, among other things, with the Headdress of the God Quetzalcóatl, better known as Moctezuma's headdress, which was sent together with other gifts to the Imperial Court. Since Charles V was a Habsburg—of the House of Austria—when the Spanish branch died out, this gift ended up in Austria.

While the Spaniards stayed in Tenochtitlan, Moctezuma lodged them in the temple of his predecessor Axayácatl (in the palace of Moctezuma's father), so that they were then able to admire the grandeur of that city. In the following days, the Spaniards visited the palaces and temples of the great Mexica capital, as well as the great cú (temple) of the empire's twin city, Tlatelolco, and its market: a plaza more than twice as large as the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca (then held to be the largest in Christendom).

While the Spaniards were residing in the palace, it occurred to them that it was time to have their own chapel and, since Moctezuma had refused to let them erect it in the temple of Huitzilopochtli, they resolved to build it in their lodgings, with the Emperor's prior permission.

Palace of Hernán Cortés in Cuernavaca, Morelos.

The captains were looking for the best place to build it when a soldier, who was a carpenter, noticed in a wall a doorway that had been walled up and whitewashed only a few days before. They then remembered the rumor that in those chambers Moctezuma kept the treasures that his father Axayácatl had been gathering.

Commemorative plaque of the first meeting between Cortés and Moctezuma at the Hospital de Jesús Nazareno in Mexico City. Recent studies have determined that, in all likelihood, the conquistador from Extremadura and the Mexica tlahtoani met at a site different from the one indicated by the monument.

Cortés and some captains went in there and, after seeing an enormous treasure, he ordered it to be walled up again. Because of earlier warnings from the Tlaxcaltecs, the possibility of being murdered then began to worry them. Four captains and twelve soldiers came before Cortés to put to him the advisability of seizing the Emperor, keeping him as a hostage, so that he would answer with his life for the life of the army. No decision was taken for the moment, but a piece of news precipitated the resolution.

Meanwhile, near Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, the battle of Nautla took place between the Mexica led by Cuauhpopoca and the Totonacs allied with the Spanish conquistadors; in the conflict they killed Juan de Escalante, the chief constable, and seven Spaniards, which brought discredit upon Spanish arms, as it was seen that they were not demigods and could be defeated. A soldier named Argüello was taken prisoner; he died on the way from his war wounds and his head was sent to the Mexica Emperor, who did not want to place it in any temple.

Once Moctezuma fell into the Spaniards' trap, Cortés held him as a hostage under threat of immediate death. He pacified his guard by saying that he was going of his own free will, and after all his belongings had been moved to the Spaniards' quarters, he continued to declare to all his visitors that he was there of his own free will.

Cortés demanded that the caciques responsible for the attack on Veracruz be punished. Brought before him, they confirmed that they were obeying Moctezuma's orders. The Mexica captains were sentenced to die at the stake.

He also got Moctezuma to declare himself a vassal of Charles V. The priestly caste and the nobility conspired to free their lord and annihilate the Spaniards.

Fighting among Spaniards

In those days news was received of the arrival of 18 ships at the Port of Veracruz; at first it was believed that they were reinforcements from the Emperor, but it was soon learned that they were troops sent by Diego de Velázquez to punish the rebels. These troops were commanded by Pánfilo de Narváez. To make matters worse, they warned Moctezuma that Cortés was a rebel against his king, and that if he could, he should kill him. So Cortés had no choice but to leave a garrison of little more than a hundred Spaniards in Tenochtitlan under the command of Pedro de Alvarado, and he, with three hundred Spaniards and several hundred Indians, went out to meet Narváez's troops. Cortés attacked the enemy camp in the middle of the night, shedding very little blood and capturing Narváez only a few moments after engaging in combat. After showing the soldiers the gold ornaments and urging them to join him, most of them changed sides in favor of Cortés, who thanks to this tripled his forces overnight. For his part, Narváez went back the way he had come, with a few followers, while Cortés returned to Tenochtitlan.

The massacre in the Great Temple

Main article: Massacre in the Great Temple

Meanwhile, in Tenochtitlan, Alvarado, fearful of a massive gathering of warriors in the Main Square of Tenochtitlan, and fearing the possible omens of Cholula, had carried out a massacre of natives, of nobles, caciques and army chiefs while they were celebrating the feast of Tóxcatl (the fifth of the 18 months of the Mexica calendar) in honor of Tezcatlipoca. Some sources also speak of worship of the ever-present Huitzilopochtli. Given Alvarado's blunder, the population, logically, was outraged, because Pedro de Alvarado took from them the jewels and precious materials they were wearing. Because of this, the inhabitants rebelled against Moctezuma, and no one respected him any longer. The Spaniards had to take refuge in their lodgings in the palace.

The rebellion and the Noche Triste

Main article: La Noche Triste

On June 24, 1520, Cortés's army entered the city again. Moctezuma's brother, Cuitláhuac, was released so that he could arrange the pacification, but instead he placed himself at the head of the Mexica and joined the chief of the caciques, named Cuauhtémoc—who would be the next Mexica tlatoani—to oppose the Spanish occupation.

Cortés got Moctezuma to try to calm the discontented and to let the Spaniards leave the city. There are two versions of Moctezuma's death: one is that while he was speaking to his people, he was struck by a stone thrown by the Mexica themselves, which wounded him fatally; the other says that Hernán Cortés ordered him killed when he saw that he could not calm the people, although this latter version was put forward by the Mexica and is considered less probable.

With the situation thus, the Spanish soldiers were besieged in the house where they were lodged, surrounded by crowds of outraged natives. The besieged saw their water, ammunition and all kinds of provisions dwindle. The only way out was retreat. And they made it on the rainy night of June 30 to July 1, 1520, known as the Noche Triste ("Sad Night"). Slipping away silently, the Spaniards headed for one of the causeways leading out of Tenochtitlan. They were not far from completing the retreat when they were discovered by an old woman, who raised the alarm, and in a few moments thousands of Mexica warriors charged the Spaniards en masse; they harassed them all along the causeway, while others attacked from their canoes. In that retreat most of the Spaniards fell, above all those who had come with Narváez, who, carrying many pieces of gold with them despite Cortés's warnings, drowned in the lake. A large number of artillery pieces and horses was also lost, as well as a large part of the treasure being carried. Pursued by the Mexica, on July 7, near Otumba, the Spaniards regrouped and gave battle to the warriors pursuing them, managing to defeat them.

Siege and fall of Tenochtitlan

Main article: Conquest of Mexico

After their defeat on the Noche Triste, the Spaniards and their Tlaxcaltec allies fell back to Tlaxcala; they regrouped and attacked Tenochtitlan, laying siege to the city. One may reflect on whether at this point the alliance of the Tlaxcaltecs could or could not be considered legitimate, because given the fragility of the Spaniards, they could have eliminated them and did not do so. Instead, they supplied and sheltered them, with the consequent obtaining of later prebends and privileges, which the conquistador, this time, does seem to have respected.

Given the indignation of the Mexica at the desecration of one of their principal festivals—where the massacre perpetrated by Alvarado took place—and understanding that the Mexica would not surrender, Cortés had the ships he had disabled brought, piece by piece, in order to lay siege to Tenochtitlan; the ships were rebuilt on the lake surrounding the city and, after a siege that lasted 75 days, during which the Mexica fought almost to their extermination, they were finally defeated and subjected to slavery. It is for this reason that we can say that today's indigenous descendants, or the mestizo mixture derived from them, came about more with the victorious Tlaxcaltecs and other indigenous lordships than with the Mexica people; at the end of the war, these obtained the status of principales in their provinces and, in various cases, that of representatives before the Spanish Crown as ruling caciques.

After the conquest was completed, Cortés had Cuauhtémoc accompany him; he is said to have gone so far as to torture him to obtain information about the Mexica treasure. Not obtaining a positive answer, Cortés took Cuauhtémoc on his later expeditions, where he would later die, allegedly hanged on Cortés's orders.

Cortés's journey to Las Hibueras

Portrait of Hernán Cortés

Cortés knew of the riches that existed in Las Hibueras (present-day Honduras), so in the year 1524 he sent, under the command of his captain Cristóbal de Olid, five ships and a brigantine, on board which were 400 men, sufficient artillery, weapons and ammunition, as well as eight thousand gold pesos to buy horses and supplies in Cuba. At the same time, an overland expedition had set out under the command of Captain Pedro de Alvarado to conquer and explore Central America.

Having learned of the rebellion of Cristóbal de Olid, Cortés decided to travel to Hibueras despite having few Spaniards in Tenochtitlan. He decided to take with him on the journey, as a preventive measure against a possible uprising, Cuauhtémoc and other Mexica nobles.

When crossing the Candelaria River (a tributary of the Grijalva River), Cortés's hosts had to build a series of bridges in order to get through the area of the present-day municipality of Candelaria, in the present-day state of Campeche. According to the chronicles of the Indies, the task was not at all easy. There he was received by the batab or halach uinik of Acalán, named Apoxpalón, who traded in cacao, cotton, salt and slaves. The meeting was peaceful and the local ruler helped the expedition continue on its way. For his part, Cortés gave him a letter or safe-conduct to show to possible future Spanish expeditions, in which the peace agreement reached was recorded.

Hernán Cortés went to Veracruz, bound for Las Hibueras, in the company of his army, where he embarked for the Villa del Espíritu Santo. From there he continued overland to Tabasco, passing through Cupilco, Cimatán, Nacaxuxuca, Zaguatán, Chilapan, Ixtapa, Acalán, Tatahuitalpan, Teutiercas and Usumacinta. According to the researcher Juan Miralles, one of the caciques of Itzamkanac warned Cortés that Cuauhtémoc, together with Tetlepanquétzal and Coanácoch, was promoting a plot to kill him together with all the Spaniards. Cortés arrested those suspected of the possible uprising and interrogated them separately. The interrogation established that the principal culprits were Cuauhtémoc and Tetlepanquétzal. For this reason, southeast of Xicalango, still within the jurisdiction of Acalán of the Chontal Maya, the sentence and execution by hanging of the last huey tlatoani Cuauhtémoc was carried out. The lord of Tlacopan, Tetlepanquétzal, and very probably the lord of Tetzcuco, Coanácoch, were also executed. According to Ixtlilxóchitl, the hanging took place in Acalán and not in Itzamkanac; on the other hand, Coanácoch was saved while being executed on the gallows, but he died as a result of it a few days later, on February 28, 1525. Years later, Juan de Torquemada, in his work Monarquía Indiana, introduced the version that Coanácoch was another of those hanged.

... being about to hang Quauhtemoc, he said these words: "O Captain Malinche, for days I had understood, and had recognized your false words: that you would give me this death, since I did not give it to myself when you surrendered yourself in my city of Mexico; why do you kill me without justice?"

— Conquista de Yucatán, Diego López de Cogolludo.

On the execution of Cuauhtémoc, Bernal Díaz del Castillo considered that he died "very unjustly":

"And this [death of Cuauhtémoc] was very unjustly inflicted, and it seemed wrong to all of us who were going, because no cause was found for it. And Cuauhtémoc himself, before they hanged him, said to Cortés: Ah, Captain Cortés! For days I had understood this end, and knew of your false promises..."

Tayasal on Lake Petén Itzá (Guatemala)

The journey continued and the expedition made contact with the Itza Maya in the vicinity of Tayasal. They were well received and Cortés met with the halach uinik Ah Can Ek (Canek). Cortés explained what had happened with the Mexica power, and the halach uinik had not yet received news of Tenochtitlan, but told him about news of wars that had taken place between the Chontal Maya of Centla and the dzules (white men). Cortés explained that he was the Captain of those wars and tried to persuade them to convert to Christianity. In view of the defenses of the city and the number of Maya inhabitants, Cortés preferred not to undertake any military action and took leave of the Itza, leaving behind an injured and dying horse that Ah Can Ek promised to take care of. In 1618 Franciscan missionaries found the Maya descendants worshiping a horse made of wood.

The expedition continued on its way for more than thirty days on a rugged and winding route as far as Nito (Guatemala), where they were not well received by the natives. After a small skirmish they settled at the site for a few days. Cortés sent a small group to request a vessel so as to be able to continue his journey by sea to Naco (the Hibueras). When the vessel arrived at Nito, they informed him that Cristóbal de Olid had already been executed.

Arriving at Naco, Cortés met with his captains and weighed the news arriving from Mexico-Tenochtitlan, where the Spaniards had mutinied. He immediately sent Gonzalo de Sandoval back.

Cortés had realized that Captain Cristóbal de Olid, a man he trusted completely, had entered into dealings with his principal enemy, none other than the Governor of Cuba, Diego de Velázquez, to rob Cortés of the new lands that were to be discovered on the voyage of exploration and conquest that he himself was financing. The conquistador mounted a second expedition in June 1524 under the command of his cousin Francisco de las Casas, in five ships and with a hundred men, with orders to apprehend and punish the faithless Cristóbal de Olid. When the punitive expedition arrived in present-day Honduras after a shipwreck, a series of skirmishes followed and Cortés's envoy, his cousin Francisco de las Casas, was taken prisoner, together with Gil González de Ávila, the latter having recently arrived with the title of governor of the Golfo Dulce.

De las Casas and Gil González managed to escape. Friends of Cortés took Cristóbal de Olid prisoner at a dinner and cut his throat.

In the area, the neighboring towns of Papayca and Chiapaxina had received the Spaniards in a friendly manner, but a short time later conditions changed and clashes began. Cortés managed to capture the principal lords, named Chicuéytl, Póchotl and Mendexeto, in order to negotiate peace in exchange for the life and freedom of the prisoners. Those of Chiapaxina surrendered, but the natives of Papayca continued hostilities. The leader named Mátzal was captured and hanged. Another leader, named Pizacura, was also captured, and Cortés kept him in captivity, but hostilities continued. Nearby, Cortés founded the Villa de Trujillo on May 18, 1525 and appointed Juan de Medina as Alcalde. Nevertheless, in the surroundings of the area the Lencas, allied with the Cares and led by the Lenca chieftain Lempira, resisted the conquest for twelve years. In 1537, during the campaigns of conquest of Francisco de Montejo, Captain Alonso de Cáceres arranged a meeting to negotiate peace; however, the meeting was a trap and an arquebusier killed the indigenous leader.

Spanish forces led by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, founder of Nicaragua, namesake of the discoverer of Yucatán, who was under the orders of Pedro Arias Dávila (Pedrarias), arrived at the Villa de Trujillo. On hearing that the area was rich in precious metals, Cortés became interested in the mines and in actions of conquest. He was preparing his expedition to Nicaragua when Friar Diego de Altamirano arrived with news about the situation in the city of Mexico, so he chose to cancel his expedition and return by sea to San Juan de Ulúa. He sent his soldiers to Guatemala to settle the area and support Pedro de Alvarado, and left the Villa de Trujillo on April 25, 1526.

Discovery of "California"

The Baja California Peninsula and the Sea of Cortés or Gulf of California (NASA)

The Island of California, 17th-century map

Know that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California, very close to one side of the Earthly Paradise; and it was inhabited by Black women, without there being a single man there, for they lived in the manner of the Amazons. They had beautiful and robust bodies, fiery courage and great strength. Their island was the strongest in all the world, with its steep cliffs and its rocky shores. Their weapons were all of gold, and of the same metal were the harnesses of the wild beasts that they were accustomed to tame in order to ride them, because in the whole island there was no other metal but gold.

— Las sergas de Esplandián, by García Ordóñez de Montalvo (Seville, 1510).

Hernán Cortés is currently considered the discoverer of the Baja California Peninsula, when in fact the first European to land on that peninsula was the Spanish pilot and navigator Fortún Jiménez, who, in command of the ship Concepción, owned by Hernán Cortés, sighted and landed on the peninsula in the year 1534, which he thought was an island.

In the fourth Letter of Relation, dated in Mexico on October 15, 1524, Hernán Cortés writes to the King of Spain of the preparation of ships to explore and subdue new kingdoms on the South Sea (Pacific Ocean), an idea that had been seething in his mind for two years, ever since the conquest of the great Tenochtitlan had been completed. In 1529, while Cortés was in Spain, he signed an agreement with the Spanish Crown by which he undertook to send at his own expense "fleets to discover islands and territories in the South Sea".

Besides territorial dominion and the possible profits in precious metals in the new lands to be discovered, he wished to find a sea passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic, for it was thought that if Fernando de Magallanes had found a strait connecting both oceans in the South, there should also exist another passage in the North. That sea passage was the mythical Strait of Anián. The aforementioned agreement stipulated that, of the lands and profits obtained, one tenth would belong to the discoverer in perpetual ownership, for himself and his descendants.

Later expeditions

The first expedition

During his stay in Spain in 1529, Cortés obtained from Charles V the title of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca and the governorship over future discoveries in the South Sea. Back in Mexico, on June 30, 1532 he sent his cousin Diego Hurtado de Mendoza to explore the islands and coasts of the South Sea, beyond the limits of the audiencia of New Galicia governed by Nuño de Guzmán, a bitter enemy of Hernán Cortés. The expedition set out in two ships from the Gulf of Tehuantepec; after touching at Manzanillo (Colima), they sailed along the coasts of Jalisco and Nayarit, which at that time were part of the audiencia of New Galicia, until they discovered the Islas Marías; from there they returned to the mainland and tried to obtain a supply of water in the bay of Matanchén, Nayarit, a supply that was denied them on the orders of Nuño de Guzmán, lord and master of the region.

One of the ships, battered by storms, set out on the return voyage, reached the coasts of Jalisco and ended up in the hands of Nuño de Guzmán, while the other ship, carrying Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, headed north; none of those on board ever returned to New Spain, and nothing more was ever heard of them. Years later, the author of the Segunda Relación anónima de la jornada que hizo Nuño de Guzmán a la Nueva Galicia gathered some information suggesting that the ship commanded by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza had been wrecked on the northern coast of the present-day state of Sinaloa, with him and the rest of the crew perishing.

The second expedition

The ship Concepción, under the command of the Captain and Commander of the expedition Diego de Becerra, was one of the two ships that Cortés sent in 1533, shortly after the conquest of the great Tenochtitlan, on a second voyage of exploration of the South Sea; the other ship was the San Lázaro, under the command of Captain Hernando de Grijalva.

The expedition set sail from the present-day port of Manzanillo on October 30, 1533; by December 20 the ships had become separated. The San Lázaro, which had gone ahead, waited in vain for the Concepción for three days and, having no sight of its companion ship, devoted itself to exploring the Pacific Ocean and discovered the Revillagigedo Islands. On board the Concepción everything was different: the navigator and second-in-command, Fortún Jiménez, mutinied and murdered Captain Diego de Becerra in his sleep, then attacked the crew members who remained loyal to the murdered captain, and later abandoned the wounded on the coasts of Michoacán together with the Franciscan friars who accompanied him on the voyage.

Fortún Jiménez sailed northwest following the coast and at some point turned west and arrived at a peaceful bay; today it is known that he reached the present-day city and port of La Paz. He thought he had reached an island; he never knew that he had reached a peninsula that in time would be called the Baja California Peninsula. There he encountered natives who spoke an unknown language and moreover went about half-naked; they were very different from the natives of the Mexican highlands, who had a culture of their own.

The crew members who accompanied him, on seeing the half-naked women and because of their long sexual abstinence, set about taking them by force. By then they had realized that pearls abounded in the place, which the natives extracted from the shells of the mollusks that abounded in the bay, so they set about plundering the place and abusing the women.

It must be emphasized that Fortún Jiménez and his companions gave no name to any of the places they found, it being other explorers who gave names to the places visited by Fortún Jiménez.

The abuse of the women by the crew, together with the plundering to which they devoted themselves, provoked a violent confrontation with the natives that ended in the death of Fortún Jiménez and some of his companions; the survivors withdrew from the place, boarded the Concepción with great difficulty and sailed erratically for several days until reaching the coasts of the present-day state of Jalisco, where they ran into the subordinates of Nuño de Guzmán, who requisitioned the ship and took them prisoner.

The third expedition

After having sponsored two voyages of exploration in the South Sea without obtaining material results, Hernán Cortés decided to lead the third voyage of exploration himself.

Cortés was annoyed because Nuño de Guzmán, his perennial archenemy, had requisitioned a ship of his during the first expedition he financed, in addition to the ship Concepción that Cortés had sent on the second voyage of exploration of the South Sea. He decided to confront him on his own ground and from there mount the third expedition; to this end he prepared a large number of foot and mounted troops to march on the province of New Galicia, of which Nuño de Guzmán was governor.

The Viceroy of New Spain warned Hernán Cortés on September 4, 1534 "not to confront the one who had requisitioned his ships", to which Hernán Cortés refused, alleging that he had spent more than 100,000 castellanos of gold, in addition to having been designated by His Majesty the King of Spain Charles I to conquer and discover new territories. By then Cortés had already organized a shipyard in Tehuantepec and had three ships ready: the San Lázaro (on which Grijalva returned from the second expedition to the South Sea), and the Santa Águeda and the Santo Tomás, which had recently been built.

Cortés's plan was ambitious: he would send the ships to Chametla, Sinaloa (near the present-day town of Escuinapa), in the territory governed by Nuño de Guzmán, and there the land army commanded by him would embark. To reach Chametla, Cortés had to cross with his army, over several days, the New Kingdom of New Galicia; New Galicia was a province of New Spain governed by his bitter enemy Nuño de Guzmán.

Bernal Díaz del Castillo relates that when it became known in New Spain that the Marquis of Oaxaca was going on a conquest again, many "believed it was a sure and rich thing" and offered to serve him: horsemen, arquebusiers and crossbowmen, and 34 married men with their wives, 320 people in all and 150 horses. And he adds that the ships were very well provisioned with hardtack, meat, oil, wine and vinegar, many trade goods, three blacksmiths with their forges and two shipwrights with their tools, as well as clerics and friars, and physicians, surgeons and an apothecary's stock.

With banners raised high, Cortés's army arrived at the town of Santiago de Galicia de Compostela, located in those days in the Valley of Matatipac (today the city of Tepic), where he was received in a friendly manner by the governor Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán, his perennial enemy. Cortés and his army remained in that town for four days before continuing their journey. It is said that Nuño de Guzmán advised Cortés not to continue with the voyage of exploration and provided him with supplies, while Cortés was amazed at the poverty in which Nuño de Guzmán lived. Without a doubt, the reception the Conqueror of Mexico received from Guzmán was due to the army accompanying Cortés.

After Cortés's departure, Nuño de Guzmán addressed a letter to the Audiencia in Mexico "in which he complains that the Marquis of the Valley wished to enter his governorship with his people, being only Captain General of New Spain".

In Chametla (Sinaloa), after crossing the present-day states of Jalisco and Nayarit, territory known as part of the kingdom of New Galicia at that time, Cortés and his retinue boarded the ships Santa Águeda and San Lázaro, onto which went 113 foot soldiers and 40 horsemen with all their horse gear, and he left 60 more horsemen on land, as reported to the Real Audiencia by Governor Nuño de Guzmán.

Once on board the San Lázaro, Cortés and his expedition headed northwest, and on May 3, 1535 he arrived at the bay he named Bahía de la Santa Cruz, today La Paz, Baja California Sur, where he confirmed the death of his subordinate Fortún Jiménez at the hands of the natives.

Once Cortés had taken possession of the Bahía de la Santa Cruz, he decided to establish a colony; he sent for the soldiers and supplies he had left in Sinaloa, but the bad weather did not help him: the ships were lost and only one ship returned to the Bahía de la Santa Cruz, carrying a load of fifty fanegas of maize, insufficient to feed the population, so Cortés went out personally in search of provisions; but what he obtained was insufficient, so he decided to return to New Spain with the intention of supplying the new colony from there.

Francisco de Ulloa was left in command of the settlement of Santa Cruz, but the complaints of the relatives of those who had stayed on the peninsula led the Viceroy to order the abandonment of the settlement and the return of the settlers to New Spain.

The fourth expedition

Hernán Cortés, who had already sponsored three voyages of exploration of the South Sea (Pacific Ocean), all of which had ended in failure, decided to send a fourth voyage of exploration to the South Sea under the command of Francisco de Ulloa in 1539. The expedition set out from the port of Acapulco on July 8 of that year on board the ships Santo Tomás, Santa Águeda and Trinidad; off the Islas Marías they were forced to abandon the Santo Tomás, so they continued the voyage of exploration in the two remaining ships.

They entered the Gulf of California and on both the outward and return voyages visited the abandoned settlement of Santa Cruz, known today as the city of La Paz. On the outward voyage they reached the northern end of the gulf on September 28, at what is known today as the mouth of the Colorado River, and they called the mouth of the River Ancón de San Andrés; a brief record was drawn up, whose text is transcribed here:

I, Pedro de Palenzia, public notary of this fleet, give faith and true testimony to all the lords who see the present, whom God our Lord keep from harm, that on the twenty-eighth day of the month of September of the year five hundred and thirty-nine, the very magnificent lord Francisco de Ulloa, lieutenant governor and captain of this fleet for the most illustrious lord Marquis of the Valley of Guajaca, took possession in the Ancón de San Andrés and Vermilion Sea, which is on the coast of this New Spain toward the North, at a latitude of thirty-three and a half degrees, for the said Lord Marquis of the Valley in the name of the Emperor our King of Castile, actually and really, putting his hand to his sword, saying that if there was any person who would contradict him, he was ready to defend it, cutting trees with it, pulling up grass, moving stones from one place to another, and drawing water from the sea; all as a sign of possession.
(...) Witnesses who were present at what has been said were the reverend fathers of Lord Saint Francis, Father Friar Raymundo, Father Friar Antonio de Mena, Francisco de Terrazas, the inspector Diego de Haro, Gabriel Márquez. Done on the aforesaid day, month and year. And I, Pedro de Palenzia, public notary of this fleet, wrote it as it took place before me; therefore I have made here this sign of mine, which is thus, in testimony of truth. — Pedro de Palencia, public notary. Frater Ramundus Alilius, Frater Antonius de Mena, — Gabriel Márquez. — Diego de Haro. — Francisco de Terrazas.

— Record of the voyage

After having landed and taken possession of the lands at the northern end of the Vermilion Sea (known today as the Gulf of California), a name they gave it because of the reddish coloring of the waters, which were tinged by the waters coming from the Colorado River, they began the return to the settlement of Santa Cruz, rounded Cabo San Lucas and entered the Pacific Ocean. They passed present-day Magdalena Bay on December 5 without entering it, because Ulloa was wounded as a result of a skirmish he had with the natives.

On April 5, 1540, from Cedros Island, he sent Cortés an account of the events of the exploration on the ship Santa Águeda; on the ship Trinidad he continued the exploration, and nothing more was ever heard of Francisco de Ulloa and his fellow sailors.

Death and successive transfers of his remains

Palace house where Hernán Cortés died, which was built as if it were a fortress. It is located in the municipality of Castilleja de la Cuesta, Seville. In 1855 the house passed into the hands of the Dukes of Montpensier, who carried out some renovations inside. In 1889 it was occupied by Irish nuns, who established a school in it.

In 1541, Cortés returned to Spain, where he died six years later, on Friday, December 2 of the year 1547, when he was planning to return to his American possessions. His death occurred in a palace house in Castilleja de la Cuesta that belonged to the juror Don Alonso Rodríguez, a friend of Hernán Cortés, in which the conquistador lived until his death. He was buried in the nearby Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo, in the crypt of the family of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, beneath the steps of the high altar, with an epitaph dedicated to him by his son Martín Cortés, second Marquis of the Valley. The epitaph read:

Father, whose fortune, improperly,

this lowly world possessed;

valor that enriched our age,

rest now in peace, eternally.

— Martín Cortés

The mortal remains of Hernán Cortés were buried several times. This was due in part to the fact that in his will he changed several times the location of the place where he wished to rest. When he lived in New Spain, he first asked to be buried in the church adjoining the Hospital de Jesús Nazareno, in Mexico City, a hospital the conquistador had founded. Later he declared his wish to be buried in a monastery he had ordered built in Coyoacán, a town adjoining the Mexican capital, a monastery that was never built because he had to leave for Spain in order to face a juicio de residencia to which he had been summoned. In October 1547, a few weeks before his death, he had once again modified his will to state his wish to be buried in the parish church of the place where he died.

In 1550, three years after his death, his remains were moved within the same church of San Isidoro del Campo, and this time he was buried right beside the altar dedicated to Saint Catherine.

In 1566, by family decision, his mortal remains were transferred to New Spain and buried together with his mother and one of his daughters in the church of San Francisco in Texcoco, located in the town of Texcoco near Mexico City. His remains would lie there until 1629.

In 1629, upon the death of Pedro Cortés, fourth Marquis of the Valley and last descendant of Hernán Cortés in the male line, the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of the Spanish province decided to bury them in the same church, so the remains of Cortés were buried near the high altar (in a niche behind the tabernacle) in the church of the convent of San Francisco (Mexico), located opposite the plaza of Guardiola, in the Mexican capital; there they left engraved the following inscription: Ferdinandi Cortés ossa servatur hic famosa.

In 1716 a remodeling of the church of San Francisco forced the Franciscans to exhume the remains and move them to the back of the main altarpiece, where they would remain for 78 years.

In 1794 the viceregal authorities again exhumed the remains of Cortés in order to fulfill the wishes of the conqueror of Mexico, who on one occasion had asked to be buried in the church adjoining the hospital of Jesús Nazareno. So they removed Cortés's bones from the church of San Francisco, where they lay in their niche in an urn of wood and glass with silver handles, with the coat of arms of the Marquis of Oaxaca painted on the head of the urn; his remains were moved with great pomp to what was believed would be his final resting place. Silver candlesticks were placed on the tomb, and inside the church a plinth was erected and on the plinth a bust of the conquistador; his remains would rest at that site for 23 years.

Copy of a portrait of Hernán Cortés made in the 19th century by the Mexican painter José Salomé Pina. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

In 1823, two years after the independence of Mexico, the memorial to honor the insurgents who died during the War of Independence began; their remains were brought to Mexico City and deposited in its cathedral. A great nationalist movement arose among the inhabitants of the Mexican capital, to the point that it was feared a mob would storm the church to seize the remains of Cortés. For this reason the Mexican minister Lucas Alamán and the chief chaplain of the hospital dismantled the mausoleum on the night of September 15, while the bust and other ornaments were sent to Italy to make the agitators believe that the mortal remains of Cortés had left the country; in reality the urn with the bones was hidden beneath the platform of the church of the hospital of Jesús Nazareno, and the remains stayed hidden there for thirteen years.

In 1836, once passions had calmed, the remains were taken out and deposited in a niche built in the wall of the church beside where the mausoleum had been; the remains rested in that place for 110 years until they were found. At some point minister Lucas Alamán informed the Spanish embassy of the place where the remains of Cortés had been deposited.

Tomb of Hernán Cortés in the Church of the Hospital de Jesús Nazareno (Mexico City)

In 1946, some historians of the Colegio de México gained access to the notarial record detailing Cortés's final resting place and decided to search for the remains. On Sunday, November 24 of that year the historians found the niche holding the urn; after carrying out some studies to authenticate the bones, they proceeded to restore the urn and recommended keeping the remains of Hernán Cortés in the same place. On November 28, 1946, the President of Mexico Manuel Ávila Camacho issued a decree by which he entrusted the custody of the mortal remains of Hernán Cortés to the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

On July 9, 1947, the remains were reburied in the same place where they had been found, and a bronze plaque engraved with Cortés's coat of arms was placed on the wall of the church with the inscription:

HERNÁN CORTÉS
1485-1547

Today, the remains of the Spanish conquistador rest in the place he chose in his youth to be buried: the church of the Hospital de Jesús Nazareno. Unfortunately, the old church is today in a state of neglect, with few resources to ensure its proper restoration.

The Black Legend

The worst stain on Cortés's service record is that he consented to the torture of Cuauhtémoc and of the Cacique of Tacuba, since the soldiers were thirsty for gold and believed that he must know where it was. Both were hanged in the year 1525 on the ill-fated expedition to Las Hibueras, on suspicion of treason.

His enemies intrigued at the court of the Emperor Charles V, accusing him of diverting gold from the royal fifth and from the distribution to the conquistadors, and suspecting that he had given orders to poison his wife Catalina Juárez and several of the envoys bearing royal decrees. Banished from Mexico, he went to Castile to claim the Governorship of New Spain, but he obtained only the marquisate of the Valley, and he was given lands near the present-day state of Oaxaca.

Heraldry

King Charles I recognized the deeds of Cortés by granting a coat of arms for him and his descendants, awarded in Madrid on March 7, 1525:

[...] to bear as your own and known arms a shield which, in the half on the right hand in the upper part, shall have a black two-headed eagle on a white field, which are the arms of our empire, and in the other half of the said half-shield, in the lower part, a golden lion on a red field, in memory that you, the said Hernando Cortés, by your industry and effort brought things to the state described above; and in the half of the other half-shield on the left hand, in the upper part, three golden crowns on a black field, one above the other two, in memory of three Lords of the great city of Tenustitan and its provinces whom you defeated, the first being Muteccuma, who was killed by the Indians while you held him prisoner, and Cuetaoacin, his brother, who succeeded to the lordship and rebelled against us and drove you out of the said city, and the other who succeeded to the said lordship, Guauctemncin, and sustained the said rebellion until you defeated and captured him; and in the other half of the said half-shield on the left hand, in the lower part, you may bear the city of Tenustitan built upon water, in memory that by force of arms you won it and subjected it to our dominion; and as the border of the said shield, on a yellow field, seven captains and lords of seven provinces and towns that are on the lake and around it, who rebelled against us and whom you defeated and captured in the said city of Tenustitan, imprisoned and bound with a chain that closes with a padlock beneath the said shield; and above it a closed helmet with its crest, on such a shield [...]

— Grant of arms

The arms represent a synopsis of the conquistador's exploits. The first quarter represents the patronage of the Emperor through the two-headed eagle proper to the Holy Roman Empire, although on a silver field instead of the usual gold. The second represents the victory over the last three huey tlatoque or great rulers of Tenochtitlan. The third represents Cortés's valor ("industry and effort"), and finally the fourth quarter bears the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan on waves of azure and silver (representing Lake Texcoco, similar to the coat of arms granted to the city of Mexico two years earlier, in which the city was, however, symbolized by a golden castle). The bordure (called an orle, which is another heraldic charge) is a customary charge granted by the Emperor and symbolizes, through chains and heads, the indigenous leaders of the cities near Tenochtitlan. The shield is surmounted by a helmet, a sign of knighthood and proper to Cortés's status as an hidalgo.

Cortés later modified the shield by adding several personal symbols. Over all he added an inescutcheon with the arms of the Rodríguez de las Varillas, which were the arms he chose to use as those of his lineage. Hernán Cortés's father, Martín Cortés, although he bore his mother's surname, belonged on his father's side to the Extremaduran branch of the illustrious Monroy family, or more correctly to the Monroy-Rodríguez de las Varillas. Ever since the Monroys were united by marriage with the Rodríguez de las Varillas, they used as their blazon a combination of the two arms: those of the Monroys, a quartered shield, in the first and fourth quarters a golden castle on a field of gules, in the second and third quarters a field of white and blue vair; and those of the Rodríguez de las Varillas, an inescutcheon with the bars of Aragon surrounded by a bordure with eight crosses with equal arms). Possibly to avoid overloading his new arms too much, and because the Cortés family had no arms of their own, Hernán Cortés incorporated as a reference to his lineage only the same inescutcheon that appeared in the arms of the Monroys, which, as has been said, were the arms proper to the Rodríguez de las Varillas family. Later, following the conquistador's example, there were members of the Cortés family who took the surname Cortés de Monroy and used the shield with the bars of Aragon, as was the case of Pedro Cortés de Monroy y Zabala, created Marquis of Piedra Blanca de Huana in 1697. Hernán Cortés also later added to his blazon a personal motto: Judicium domini aprehendit eos et fortitudo ejus corroboravit brachium meum (The Lord judged them in their acts and strengthened my arm). And above the helmet he added a winged lion that some of his descendants continued to use.

On July 20, 1529, the King granted Cortés the noble title of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, by which he was able to surmount his arms with a marquis's coronet, in addition to other benefits attached to this privilege.

The coats of arms of Hernán Cortés

Grant of 1525

Later modification of the granted arms

Arms as Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca

Monuments and artistic representations in Mexico

There are few representations of Cortés in Mexico. However, many geographic points of interest bear his name, from the castle in the City of Cuernavaca to street names throughout the Mexican Republic.

One of the few authentic monuments of Mexico City is in the pass between the volcanoes Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl, through which Cortés led his soldiers on their march to Mexico City. It is currently known as the Paso de Cortés.

The muralist Diego Rivera painted several representations of him, but the most famous one shows him as a powerful and sinister figure, together with La Malinche, in one of the murals in the National Palace in Mexico City.

In 1981, the then President of Mexico José López Portillo tried to promote public recognition of Hernán Cortés. First, he publicly unveiled a copy of the bust of Cortés made by Manuel Tolsá at the Hospital de Jesús Nazareno with an official ceremony, but a nationalist group soon tried to destroy it, so it had to be removed from public view. Today the copy of the bust is located in "El Hospital de Jesús" in a little-visited corner, while the original is in Naples, Italy, in the Villa Pignatelli (property of the descendants of Cortés).

Monument to Mestizaje

Later, another monument known as the "Monumento al Mestizaje" (Monument to Mestizaje) by Julián Martínez and M. Maldonado (1982) was commissioned by López Portillo to be placed in the "Zócalo" (main square) of the borough of Coyoacán (Mexico City), near the place where Cortés had his country house. Due to public protests, it had to be moved to a little-known park, the Jardín Xicoténcatl in the Barrio de San Diego Churubusco, near the former convent of Churubusco. The statue shows Cortés, La Malinche and their son.

There is another statue of Cortés, made by Sebastián Aparicio, in the city of Cuernavaca, State of Morelos. It stood in a popular hotel, El Casino de la Selva. The figure of Cortés is barely recognizable, so it provoked very little controversy. The hotel was closed to build a shopping center, and the statue was removed from public display by order of COSTCO, the builder of the shopping center, and to date it is not available to the public.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Director	Actor
1947	Captain from Castile	Henry King	César Romero
1998	La otra conquista	Salvador Carrasco	Iñaki Aierra
2007	Aztec Rex	Brian Trenchard-Smith	Ian Ziering

Television series

Year	Series	Channel	Actor
2015	Carlos, rey emperador	TVE	José Luis García Pérez

See also

• Letters of Relation of Hernán Cortés
• Conquistador
• Bernal Díaz del Castillo
• Diego Hurtado de Mendoza
• Fortún Jiménez
• Nuño de Guzmán
• Baja California Peninsula
• Origin of the name California
• Spanish Black Legend
• La Paz, Baja California Sur

Bibliography

• David A. Boruchoff (2008). "Hernán Cortés". International encyclopedia of the social sciences. 2 (2nd ed.): 146–149. ISBN 9780028659657.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
• Fernando Benítez (1950). La Ruta de Hernán (in español). Fondo de Cultura Económica.
• Esteban Mira Caballos (2010). Hernán Cortés: el fin de una leyenda (in español). Palacio de los Barrantes Cervantes. ISBN 978-84-613-8066-4.
• Esteban Mira Caballos (2017). Hernán Cortés: Mitos y leyendas del conquistador de Nueva España (in español). Fundación Obra Pía de los Pizarro. ISBN 978-84-617-9966-4.
• Juan Miralles Ostos (2001). Hernán Cortés. Inventor de México (in español) (2nd ed.). Tusquets. ISBN 970-699-023-2.
• Salvador de Madariaga (2000). Hernán Cortés (in español). Espasa. ISBN 9788467029161.
• José María Iraburu (2003) [1992]. Hechos de los apóstoles de América (PDF) (in español) (3rd ed.). Fundación Gratis Date. ISBN 9788487903366.
• José Luis Martínez (1990). Hernán Cortés (in español). Fondo de Cultura Económica and UNAM. ISBN 968163330X.
• Christian Duverger (2001). Cortés (in français). Fayard. ISBN 2213609020.
• Bartolomé Bennassar (2002). Hernán Cortés: el conquistador de lo imposible (in español). ISBN 8484602052.
• Juan Antonio Cebrián (2003). "7. Hernán Cortés. Símbolo de una conquista". Pasajes de la Historia II: Tiempo de Héroes (in español). pp. 181–211. ISBN 9788495645173.
• Salvador Gutiérrez Contreras (1949). Compostela de Indias. Su origen y fundación (in español).
• Demetrio Ramos (1992). Hernán Cortés. Mentalidad y propósitos (in español). Rialp. ISBN 84-321-2787-6.
• José Luis Olaizola (1990). Hernán Cortés. Crónica de un imposible (in español). Planeta. ISBN 84-320-4527-6.
• Amelio Alonso de Cadenas López y Vicente de Cadenas y Vicent (1997). Blasonario de la consanguinidad ibérica. 1996-1997 (in español). Instituto Salazar y Castro. ISBN 84-87204-98-8.
• Alonso López de Haro (1622). Nobiliario genealógico de los reyes y títulos de España (in español).
• Prudencio de Sandoval (1955–1956) [1634]. Carlos Seco Serrano (ed.). Historia de la vida y hechos del emperador Carlos V (in español). Vol. IV. Atlas (digitized by Cervantes Virtual).

External links

• Works by Hernán Cortés at the Internet Archive.
• Hernán Cortés: Página de relación (in Spanish)
• Historia de los restos de Cortés (in Spanish)