Xicoténcatl the Elder

Xicoténcatl and Hernán Cortés, surrounded by Spanish soldiers and Tlaxcaltec warriors (picture from the Lienzo de Tlaxcala , 16th century)

Xicoténcatl the Elder († 1522; Spanish baptismal name Don Lorenzo de Vargas ) was at the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico a cacike of the Tlaxcalteks .

After arriving in Mexico in 1519, the Spaniards moved inland towards the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán . They crossed the area controlled by the Tlaxcalteks and were attacked by them on September 4th under the command of the Xicoténcatl and his son of the same name . The Spaniards immediately offered peace because they wanted an alliance with the Tlaxcalteks against the Aztecs. But the Tlaxcaltec attacked persistently in the days that followed. In doing so, they brought the Spaniards into dire straits.

Finally, after the Spaniards had renewed their peace offer several times, Xicoténcatl heard their envoys in Tlaxcala and accepted the offer in agreement with the other caciques of Tlaxcalas. He even ordered the Spaniards to be supplied with everything they needed. His son, on the other hand, strictly refused to give up the fight against the Spaniards and withdrew with a band of warriors, but he was soon forced to make peace with them too. Finally, at the instigation of their father, the Tlaxcalteks concluded an alliance with the aim of breaking the overwhelming power of the Aztecs . As a sign of loyalty, he married his daughter, who was given the name Luisa , to the Spanish captain Pedro de Alvarado , to whom she later gave birth to a son and a daughter.

In the period that followed, Xicoténcatl had the Spaniards supported by warriors from Tlaxcala again and again. After the Spaniards had moved on to Tenochtitlán and had to flee from there after the Noche Triste in July 1520, he again offered them shelter against the resistance of his son and thus enabled them to refresh their strength. Since Xicoténcatl the Younger still offered strong resistance and openly fought the Spaniards, Hernán Cortés had him executed during the renewed campaign against the Aztecs, whereby according to Bernal Díaz del Castillo the father himself should have advised Cortés to do so.

After the fall of Tenochtitlán, Xicoténcatl the Elder was baptized and took the Spanish name Don Lorenzo de Vargas . In 1522, a good year after the conquest of the Aztec Empire, he died.

literature

• Bernal Díaz del Castillo : History of the Conquest of Mexico. Edited and edited by Georg A. Narciß. Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-458-32767-3 ( Insel-Taschenbuch 1067), (Spanish original title: Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España ).