Tecuichpoch (Isabel Moctezuma)

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Tecuichpoch ( Spanish Doña Isabel Moctezuma ; * around 1510 in Tenochtitlán ; † December 9, 1550 or April 8, 1551 ) was a daughter of Moctezuma II , the third-last ruler of Tenochtitlán.

To keep the family in power, Tecuichpoch married Atlixcatl , one of Ahuitzotl's sons, as a child . When Atlixcatl fell in a flower war , Tecuichpoch was widowed for the first time.

Genealogy of Tecuichpoch

Hernán Cortés entered Tenochtitlán in 1519 and captured Moctezuma within a few days. In captivity, he offered the Spanish conquistador his daughter Tecuichpoch to wife. He was already married at the time, but did not reject the Aztec princess. He promised to treat her well. In the Noche Triste the Spaniards fled Tenochtitlán and Cortés left Tecuichpoch in the city.

The new ruler and heir of Moctezuma, Cuitláhuac , also came from the family and took Tecuichpoch as his wife. But in 1520 he died of smallpox after only a few months of reign . His successor Cuauhtémoc also came from the Moctezuma family and he also married Tecuichpoch to legitimize his power. When Cuauhtémoc was captured on Lake Texcoco after the conquest of Tenochtitlán on August 13, 1521 , Tecuichpoch was also captured. First of all, her husband, the former ruler, was treated with honor by the Spaniards. But after just a few days he was tortured so that he could reveal where the treasures had gone that were lost in the Noche Triste. On his conquest of Honduras , Cortés dropped Cuauhtémoc in February 1525 because he supposedly wanted to instigate a rebellion. After Tecuichpoch had again become a widow, she married Alonso de Grado , a Spanish conquistador from the very beginning , in June 1526 . On this occasion, Cortés awarded Tecuichpoch, now called Isabel, the encomienda of Tacuba (pre-Hispanic: Tlacopan ), one of the few encomiende that was not limited to the lifetime of the beneficiary and his immediate descendants. But de Grado also died soon, before March 1527.

In 1527, Cortés fathered Tecuichpoch (Isabel), their daughter Doña Leonor Cortés y Moctezuma (not to be confused with Leonor Moctezuma , second daughter of Moctezuma II, Tecuichpoch's sister). According to Spanish law, this daughter was born out of wedlock and was therefore a bastard according to the opinion of the time .

Tecuichpoch (Isabel) married the Spaniard Pedro Gallego de Andrada in 1527 through the mediation of Cortés , with whom she had a son, Juan Andrada de Moctezuma . Gallego also died after a relatively short time in April 1531. In the same year she married Juan Cano de Saavedra , who had come to Mexico with the troops of Pánfilo de Narváez and had joined Cortés. The couple had five children: Pedro, Gonzalo, Juan, Isabel and Catalina. Both daughters became nuns . Juan Cano undertook numerous demarches to the Spanish king in order to secure or regain the possessions of her father and mother for his wife; however, these were only successful to a small extent.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Donald E. Chipman: Isabel Moctezuma: Pioneer of Mestizaje . In: David G. Sweet / Gary B. Nash (Eds.): Struggle and Survival in Colonial America . University of California Press, Berkeley 1981, ISBN 0-520-04110-0 , p. 221.
  2. ↑ Amanda López de Meneses: Tecuichpochtzin, hija de Moteczuma (¿1510-1550?) . In: Revista de Indias. Volume 9, 1948, pp. 471-495.
  3. ^ Bernal Díaz del Castillo: History of the Conquest of Mexico. 1988, p. 360.
  4. ^ Hanns J. Prem : The Aztecs - History-Culture-Religion. Verlag CH Beck, p. 49.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Tecuichpoch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Moctezuma, Isabel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Aztec princess, daughter of Moctezuma II, wife of two Aztec rulers
DATE OF BIRTH around 1510
PLACE OF BIRTH Tenochtitlan
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1550