Hi! @DavidOBowles, back in the saddle for day 2 of our examination of the invasion & conquest of Mexico, seen through the lives of its last emperor & empress.

Yesterday was background on Tecuichpo, Moctezuma's daughter.

Let's look at her life.

#Twitteristorian
#Aztecpop

1/

Tēcuichpo has unique value to the power struggles in Tenochtitlan: in her are finally merged the 2 main lines of the royal family—the city-state’s 2nd king, Huitzilihuitl, & his bastard half-brother Itzcoatl, 4th king and founder of the Triple Alliance. First Aztec Emperor.

2/

Before the Spanish arrive, she is married to Atlixcatl—son of previous ruler Āhuitzotl, therefore both her cousin & maternal uncle.

With this marriage, Motēuczōma signals whom he wants as his successor. But Altixcatl dies on the battlefield in 1520, leaving her a widow.

3/

When Cortés enters Tenōchtitlan & takes Motēuczōma hostage, the emperor hands Tēcuichpōchtzin & 2 other daughters of his over to the Conquistador. The latter 2 are re-named “María” & “Mariana” by the Spanish. Tēcuichpo is called “Isabel,” in honor of the former Spanish queen.

4/

When Cortés leaves to stop newcomer Pánfilo de Narváez from arresting him, Pedro de Alvarado orders the massacre of many Mexica noblemen at the festival of Toxcatl. Even with the 600 new men that he returns with, Cortés can’t get the resulting chaos under control.

5/

Motēuczōma is killed, and then the Spanish are forcibly expelled. Cortés attempts to take the king’s daughters with him, but the Mexica rescue them even as they slaughter 600 Spaniards, countless Tlaxcaltecah allies, and dozens of horses

Tēcuichpōchtzin is finally free.

6/

Once her uncle Cuitlāhuac becomes king, he marries Tēcuichpōchtzin. But the king succumbs to smallpox as the disease sweeps through the city, & the young widow finds herself marrying Cuāuhtemōc (who may have just had her brother killed to keep him from the throne).

7/

More on Cuāuhtemōc tomorrow and Thursday.

Suffice it to say for now that Cortés returns.

After a four-month siege, the city falls.

Three and a half years later, the emperor is executed, leaving Tēcuichpo a widow for the third time.

8/

She becomes the “ward” of Cortés & “converts” to Catholicism, baptized “Isabel Moctezuma.” In June 1526, Cortés marries “Doña Isabel” to his friend Alonso de Grado. Her dowry? The city-state of Tlacopan, once ruled by her grandfather. An encomienda she & her husband control.

9/

Alonso de Grado is named visitador general de indios, commission judge settling conflicts among indigenous people. But this position & power don’t last: a year later, he’s dead. Doña Isabel becomes a widow for the 4th time, & she’s back with Cortés.

Soon she gets pregnant.

10/

Cortés wants to avoid a scandal, so he marries her to the undistinguished soldier Pedro Gallego, and a girl is born a few months later: Leonor Cortés Moctezuma, whom Cortés eventually recognizes as his daughter. Isabel won't raise the child, product of rape that she is.

11/

A cousin of Cortés takes the baby & raises her. In 1530, Isabel and Pedro have a son, Juan de Andrade Gallego Moctezuma. Pedro dies about a year later. In 1532, Isabel marries her sixth and final husband, Juan Cano de Saavedra. They have three sons and two daughters:

12/

Pedro, Gonzalo, Juan, Isabel, & Catalina Cano de Moctezuma. Both daughters become nuns at the 1st convent in the Americas. Who can blame them or their mother after all the former empress had experienced?

Despite the hardship life has thrown at her, Isabel is kind & strong.

13/

She gives generously to charity & to the church of her adopted faith.

In her will, as a final act, she gives her 1st, estranged daughter an ample dowry & then frees all the indigenous slaves her family owns.

Her death brings to an end the long line of Tenōchcah queens.

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