Hernán Cortés

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 that meant the end of the Aztec empire, putting it under the control of the Crown of Castile, creating from it the so-called New Spain.

He was born in the Extremaduran city of Medellín, in a family of minor 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 mayor 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, caused the trip to be canceled at the last minute, an order that Cortés ignored.

Arriving on the continent, Cortés carried out a successful strategy of allying himself with certain indigenous groups to defeat others. He also used a native woman, Doña Marina (la Malinche), who served as his interpreter and with whom he had a son named Martín. When the governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortés, he confronted and defeated them, while enlisting the troops that were going to arrest him as reinforcements for his expedition. Cortés sent several letters to King Carlos I so that his successful conquest would be recognized instead of being penalized for his mutiny. He was eventually granted the title of Marques del Valle de 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.

Personality

Hernán Cortés is considered by his revisionists as a man of complex nuances, he combined criteria and audacity, he possessed great resilience in the face of adversity, brave, cunning and intelligent, with a strong and predominant leadership among his hosts, charismatic and seductive in speech and who provoked among his peers a veiled antagonism.

Cortés had a reputation as a womanizer, he had 11 children by 6 women, 4 of them were natives of Mesoamerica, among them La Malinche. The death in strange circumstances of Catalina Juárez, his first wife whom he considered to be in poor health and useless, gave him a negative imprint that would haunt him.

During the conquest he knew how to demonstrate cruelty in the face of evidence of treason, sheltering himself with the Christian faith in the most radical way and did not hesitate to apply the worst punishments to friends and enemies; but in turn, he was benevolent towards the vanquished. Governed by great ambition, he aspired not only to be considered part of the Spanish nobility; but to establish himself as a viceroy in Mesoamerica and that motivated his desire to conquer to gain recognition from King Carlos V.

Birth and youth

He was the only son of a 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 that he left two years later, moved by his desire for adventure.. These preparatory studies and the practical knowledge of the law that he acquired in apprenticeship with a clerk 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 embark for the Indies, and, on the other, to participate in the campaigns of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba in Italy, he finally set sail for the island of Hispaniola. According to Francisco López de Gómara, he set sail in 1504 on a ship owned by Alonso de Quintero, a resident of Palos de la Frontera. A document from the Archive of Protocols in Seville indicates that on August 29, 1506, his father paid the amount of his passage to Santo Domingo in the ship San Juan Bautista, owned by Luis Fernández Alfaro. Esteban Mira supposes that he must have gone in 1504, to later return to Spain, and that he went to America again in 1506.

Marriages and offspring

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

• Catalina Pizarro, born 1514 or 1515 in Santiago de Cuba, or perhaps later in New Spain. Her mother was Leonor Pizarro, a probable relative of Cortés. She was legitimized along with her brothers Martin and Louis in a papal bull from Clement VII in 1529.
• Martín Cortés Malintzin, born in Coyoacán in 1522. His mother was Malinche, Cortés' indigenous companion and translator. He was legitimized along with his siblings Catherine and Louis in a papal bull from Clement VII in 1529.
• Luis Cortés, born in 1525, son of the Spanish Antonia or Elvira Hermosillo, and who will 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 of Doña Isabel de Moctezuma, in turn the daughter of Moctezuma II Xocoyotzin. Rejected by her mother from her birth, it was her father who later recognized her. She married the Basque Juan de Tolosa, conqueror of Zacatecas. She was the mother-in-law of Juan de Oñate, founder of New Mexico.
• 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 Juana Ramírez de Arellano y Zúñiga, daughter of the 1st Count of Aguilar and maternal niece of the 1st Duke of Béjar. Juana settles in the town of Cuernavaca, living in the palace built in 1526. From this marriage six children were born:

• Luis Cortés y Ramírez de Arellano, born in Texcoco in 1530 and died shortly after birth.
• Catalina Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca in 1531 and died shortly after birth.
• Martín Cortés y Ramírez de Arellano, born in Cuernavaca in 1532. Successor of his father as II 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 IV Marquis of Astorga, however, they canceled at the last moment, causing Cortés serious anger, who it is even presumed that it caused the disease from which he dies. Later, she, María, married Luis Fernández de Quiñones y Pimentel, V Count of Luna.
• Catalina Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca between 1533 and 1536. Died single in Seville after the death of her father.
• Juana Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca between 1533 and 1536. In 1564 she married Fernando Enríquez de Ribera, 2nd Duke of Alcalá.

Race

In Hispaniola, he participated in a campaign against the Haitian caciques in the regions of Higuey, Bauruco, Dayguao, Iutagna, Zuaragua and Amguayagua. As a reward, the then governor Nicolás de Ovando gave him land and a position as notary public in Azua.

Cuban conquest

In 1511 Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar recruited Cortés for the conquest of Cuba, as secretary to the treasurer Miguel de Pasamonte, in order to administer the royal fifth. He received the Indians of Manicarao encomienda and was able to develop his livestock and exploit Cuban gold mines. He was appointed mayor of Santiago de Cuba, although in 1514 he was imprisoned by the governor, accused of conspiring against him. Released, married Diego Velázquez's own sister-in-law, named Catalina Juárez. Cortés was also one of Diego Velázquez's personal secretaries, along with Andrés Duero.

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 Yucatan coast. But Velázquez soon distrusted him.

Bernal Díaz del Castillo, author of True History of the Conquest of New Spain, recounts that a jester of Velázquez, called Cervantes el Loco, told his lord, in the manner of jesters: «To the gala of my master Diego Diego, which captain have you chosen? That he is from Medellín de Extremadura, a great captain. I am more afraid, Diego, do not rise up with the army, for I judge him to be a very great man in his things ».

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

The conquest of the Mexica Empire

Anticipating the dismissal of Diego Velázquez, Cortés's army precipitously left the port of Santiago de Cuba on November 18, 1518. Since he was short of supplies, he had to stock up on them in the port of Trinidad and other places.

Finally, on February 10, 1519, the fleet left the coast of Cuba. That navy consisted of 11 ships, with 518 infantry, 16 horsemen, 13 arquebusiers, 32 crossbowmen and 110 sailors, and according to the chronicle of Bartolomé de las Casas, about 200 Indians and blacks as troop auxiliaries. They had 32 horses, 10 bronze cannons and four falcons. As captains were Alonso Hernández Portocarrero (who was Doña Marina's first lover), Alonso González 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 these were veterans of the Italian war. Alonso de Ávila was also in the expedition. Antón de Alaminos was the main pilot with experience in the two previous expeditions of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba and Juan de Grijalva.

First contacts with the settlers

The first contact with the Mesoamerican civilizations was on the island of Cozumel, an important shipping port and Mayan religious center that was part of the jurisdiction of Ecab, and where the sanctuary dedicated to Ixchel, goddess of fertility, was located. The Spanish arrived during the Postclassic Period of Maya Culture 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 the halach uinik, in constant conflict between Yes.

Immediately after presenting himself to the batab (local ruler of the city) Cortés ordered him to leave his religion and adopt Christianity by sending his men to destroy the Mayan religious idols and to put crosses and images of the Virgin Mary in the temple. A biography of King Charles I written in 1603 recounts the moment thus:The islanders were frightened at seeing that fleet and went into the mountains, leaving their houses and haciendas abandoned. Some Spaniards entered the interior and found four women with three children and brought them to Cortés, and by signs of the Indians that 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 inns and given a lot of gifts. And when Cortés saw that they were already assured and happy, she began to preach the faith of Christ to them. She commanded the tongue he was carrying to tell them that he wanted to give them a better God than the one they had. He begged them to worship the Cross and an image of Our Lady, and they said they were pleased. He took them to his temple and broke their idols and put in their place crosses and images of Our Lady, which the Indians considered all good. While there, Cortés never sacrificed men, which they used to do every day.

History of the life and deeds of Emperor Carlos V, by Prudencio de Sandoval.

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

The battle of Centla and the taking of Potonchán

Cortés' expedition continued along the coast guided by the pilot Antón de Alaminos until arriving on March 14, 1519 at the mouth of the Tabasco River (today Grijalva), near the city of Potonchán (Putunchan), belonging to the Putunes. or Maya-Chontal group and governed by the «halach uinik» Taabscoob. The crucial Battle of Centla took place there, recounted from the Spanish point of view by López de Gómara in the chapter Combate y toma de Potonchan from his book From him The conquest of Mexico:Cortés went ahead making signs of peace, he spoke to them through Jerónimo de Aguilar, begging them to receive them well, because they did not come to harm them, but to drink fresh water and buy food, like men who were walking by the sea, they needed food. it; therefore, that they give it to him, that they would pay him very courteously.

The authorities of Potonchan ordered to bring them water and food so that they could leave. But Cortés argued that it was not enough and insisted that his troops be allowed into the city.The Indians replied that they did not want advice from people they did not know, much less welcome them into their homes, because they seemed terrible and bossy men, and that if they wanted water, they should take it from the river or dig wells in the ground, which is what they did. when they needed her. Then Cortés, seeing that words were unnecessary, told them that in no way could he fail to enter the place and see that land, to take and give an account of it to the greatest lord in the world, who had sent him there; for that reason, that they should consider him good, because he wanted to do it for good, and if not, that he would entrust himself to his God, to his hands and to those of his companions. The Indians only said to leave, and not to try to bravado in a foreign land, because in no way would they allow her to leave her or enter her town,

The Spanish then attacked the city from two flanks, producing a bloody battle that ended in the defeat of Potonchán and the entry of Cortés and his men:The Spaniards scrutinized the houses and found nothing but corn and turkeys, and some things of cotton, and little trace of gold, since there were only four hundred men of war inside defending the place. Much Indian blood was shed in the taking of that place, for fighting naked; the wounded were many and captives were few; the dead were not counted. Cortés took up residence in the temple of the idols with all the Spaniards, and they fit very happily, because it has a patio and some very good and large rooms. They slept there that night with good guard, as in the house of enemies, but the Indians did not dare to do anything. In this way Potonchan was taken, which was the first city that Hernán Cortés won by force in what he discovered and conquered.

After the defeat, the Tabasco authorities made Cortés an offering of food, jewelry, fabrics, and a group of twenty slaves, who were accepted, changed their names when they were baptized, and distributed among his men. Among these slaves was a called Malintzin, whom the Spanish renamed Marina, also known as La Malinche, who would be crucial in the conquest of Mexico. Her great intelligence, her mastery of the Mayan and Nahuatl languages, her knowledge of the psychology and customs of the Indians, and her fidelity to the Spaniards, made Malinche one of the most extraordinary and controversial women in the history of America..La Malinche was interpreter, adviser and concubine of Hernán Cortés, with whom she would have a son Martín Cortés, of the same name as the legitimate son that Hernán Cortés would have fourteen years later with Juana de Zúñiga. Marina and Gerónimo de Aguilar substituted for Melchorejo as interpreters, because he had decided to boycott the Spanish and was inciting the indigenous people to resist the conquest.

Foundation of Santa María de la Victoria

Later, Cortés went to a large ceiba (considered a sacred tree by the Mayans) and drawing his sword, struck a few blows on the trunk 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 population in New Spain and one of the first in America. Immediately, the clergyman Fray Bartolomé de Olmedo and his chaplain Juan Díaz officiated the first Christian mass on the mainland of New Spain and one of the first on the Continent (a mass is recorded on the island that Juan de Grijalva named Santa Cruz de la Puerta Latina, today Cozumel on May 7, 1518)....And after dismounting under some trees and houses that were there, we thanked God very much for having given us that victory so accomplished; and since it was the day of Our Lady of March, a town that was populated was called Santa María de la Victoria, both because it was Our Lady's day 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's leave him here and I'll tell you what else we went through.Bernal Díaz del Castillo,

True History of the Conquest of New Spain

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

Foundation of Veracruz and military alliance with Cempoala

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

Cortés set up his camp in front of the city of Quiahuiztlán, ancestrally inhabited by the Totonacs, and shortly afterwards he converted it into a city, with the name of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz (located 70 km north of present-day Veracruz), for having landed the Spaniards in that place on Good Friday.

The new settlers begged Cortés to proclaim himself captain general, depending directly on the king and not on Velázquez, who was not recognized as having command over those new lands. After refusing several times, he ended up accepting it. He appointed mayor, aldermen, bailiffs, treasurer and second lieutenant, thus consummating the disassociation of the authority of the governor of Cuba over the expedition. This act is considered as the foundation of one of the first European cities in continental America.

Cortés then noticed that the Mexica Empire had enemies and that this facilitated his plans. He began to develop a strategy, in order to take advantage of the quarrels and hatred that existed towards the Mexica domain, due to a large number of provinces, in order to achieve the conquest of such a vast empire. But to do so, he also had to impose his will and his command over Governor Diego de Velázquez's faction, which maintained that Cortés did not have authorization to populate, but only to rescue and discover, and that they should return to Cuba once the war was over. expedition. Most of the captains and the troops supported Cortés, since they sensed the great wealth that could be found in Tenochtitlan.

The first Mesoamerican nation with which Cortés established a military alliance was the Totonac Culture, with its capital in 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 conquer Tenochtitlan. The Totonacs contributed 1,300 warriors to Cortés' company 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. However, after the conquest of Mexico, the Totonacas, decimated by the military alliance and disease, never returned to be what they were. Several of them ended up entrusted as serfs to the Spanish lords in their own lands, particularly in the nascent cultivation of sugar cane, leaving Cempoala uninhabited and its culture extinct 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” (drilling) of ships

News arrived that Diego Velázquez had obtained through his companions in the Court the appointment of advance of Yucatán, for which Cortés sent, to obtain the appointment, his faithful Portocarrero and Montejo with the best of the loot obtained until then. He also made the decision to disable the ships, except the one that Portocarrero was to use in order to maintain direct contact with Spain, to prevent any flight of the men who did not support his rebellion against the legality of the governor of Cuba. This fact recalls a similar one by the Roman Fabius Maximus, collected in the Stratagems of Sextus Julius Frontinus.

Regarding the actual physical way in which the ships were rendered useless, the sources use the expressions “drill” (open holes with a drill or drill) and “give across” (overturn, knock down, put the ship in a transverse direction to beach it). Possibly what was done was a combination of both processes, and in any case it is important to say that the pieces of the ships served for later purposes that had decisive importance in the conquest of the Mexica capital.

War and subsequent alliance with Tlaxcala. Cholula Massacre

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

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

At that time, Tlaxcala and Tenochtitlán represented two opposing conceptions of political organization that led them to open confrontation. Tlaxcala had been organized as a confederation of city-states united in a republic governed by a Senate; México-Tenochtitlán, on the other hand, was organized as an empire.

Starting in 1455, the Mexica Empire, formed on the basis of the Triple Alliance between Tenochtitlán, Tetzcuco and Tlacopan, had initiated the so-called flowery wars against Huejotzingo, Cholula and Tlaxcala, in order to capture prisoners for their religious sacrifices, and which they guaranteed the repudiation of the rest of the indigenous lordships.

In these circumstances Cortés arrived in the territory of Tlaxcala, commanding his Totonac-Spanish army. Initially, the Republic of Tlaxcala, under the command of Xicohténcatl Axayacatzin, denied the invaders passage through its territory, facing each other on September 2 in the Tecoantzinco gorge with luck favorable to Cortés. The next day there was a new confrontation in the plains, which was again unfavorable for Tlaxcala, leading to the division of the Republic, with the desertion of the troops from Ocotelulco and Tepeticpac, realizing that they could not prevail against the 400 Spanish soldiers. and their indigenous allies. Outclassed in war tactics and discipline –several of the Spanish soldiers and even their captains were thirds and veterans of Italy, the best of Europe at that time–, Xicohténcatl's troops were again defeated and the Senate ordered to stop the war and offer peace to Cortés. This agreement established the crucial alliance with the Tlaxcalans, opponents of the Mexica regime, which had never been able to conquer their territory. Cortes stayed there for several weeks.

On his way to Tenochtitlan, Cortés arrived in Cholula, an ally of the Mexica Empire, which was the second largest city after Mexico-Tenochtitlan, with 30,000 inhabitants. Bernal Díaz del Castillo tells in his chronicle that after receiving Cortés and his huge army, the Cholula authorities planned to ambush him and annihilate the Spanish. Díaz del Castillo recounts that he and his troops saw poles with necklaces on the side of the temples that he assumed were intended for the Spanish to be taken captive to Tenochtitlan. Díaz del Castillo also tells that an old woman and some priests from the temples of Cholula alerted Cortés, who immediately sent his army to attack, causing what is known as the massacre of Cholula., in which more than 5,000 men died in five hours. The contingent remained in Cholula during October and November and when Cortés left, he ordered the city to be set on fire.

Later he arrived at Santa Catarina Ayotzingo, from where he prepared the attack on Tenochtitlan. Upon his arrival in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Cortés was surprised 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 to the Valley of Mexico, crossing between two volcanoes, Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, until reaching a wooded area of ​​splendid beauty that even today bears the name of Paso de Cortés. On the other side, he sighted Lake Texcoco for the first time approaching it on the Xochimilco course.

Tenochtitlan

Hernán Cortés, in his march towards Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the army of Cortés (about three hundred Spaniards) and the support of about 3,000 Tlaxcalans sighted the Popocatépetl and Iztaccihuatl volcanoes. And one of Cortés's captains, named Diego de Ordás, was the first European to ascend to the top of the Popocatépetl volcano in the company of two comrades-in-arms, causing a great impression among the natives who accompanied Cortés' expedition. For such a feat and military merits, Emperor Carlos V granted Diego de Ordás by decree issued on October 22, 1523, the right to possess a coat of arms with a view of the volcano.

At the entrance to the city, held on November 8, 1519, Moctezuma and Cortés met, with Doña Marina and Gerónimo de Aguilar acting as interpreters. Moctezuma II believed that the Spaniards were envoys from the god who would come from the East -this is Quetzalcóatl or Feathered Serpent- and he was a splendid host to them, giving them, among other things, the Headdress of the God Quetzalcóatl, known as Moctezuma's Headdress and which, he was sent along with others present to the Imperial Court. Given that Carlos V was an Austria —house of the Habsburgs— 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 ancestor Axayácatl (in the palace of Moctezuma's father), then being 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 the size of the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca (then considered the largest in Christendom).

The Spaniards residing in the palace, it occurred to them that it was time to have their own chapel and, since Moctezuma had refused to have it erected in the temple of Huitzilopochtli, they decided to build it in their accommodation, with the permission of the emperor.

The captains were looking for the best place to locate it when a soldier, who was a carpenter, noticed in one wall the existence of a boarded up and whitewashed door that had been a few days old. They remembered then that it was whispered that in those rooms Moctezuma had deposited the treasures that his father Axayácatl had gathered.

Cortés and some captains entered there and after seeing an enormous treasure he ordered that it be walled up again. Due to previous warnings from the Tlaxcalans, he then began to worry them about the possibility of being assassinated. Four captains and twelve soldiers presented themselves to Cortés to remind him of the convenience of arresting the emperor, keeping him as a hostage, so that he would respond with his life for the life of the army. No agreement was reached at the moment, but news precipitated the resolution.

Meanwhile, in the vicinity of the Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, the battle of Nautla took place between the Mexicas led by Cuauhpopoca and the Totonacas allied with the Spanish conquerors, in the conflict they killed Juan de Escalante, chief bailiff, and seven Spaniards. which meant a loss of prestige for the Spanish weapons when seeing that they were not demigods and that they could be defeated. A soldier named Argüello was taken prisoner, died on the way from 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 trap of the Spaniards, Cortés held him hostage on pain of immediate death. He appeased his guard by saying that he was going of his own free will, and after being transferred with the Spaniards all his belongings continued to manifest to all his visitors that he was there of his own free will.

Cortés demanded that the caciques responsible for the aggression against Veracruz be punished. Brought into his presence, 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 Carlos V. The priestly caste and the nobility conspired to free their lord and annihilate the Spanish.

Fight between Spaniards

In those days, news was received of the arrival of 18 ships in the Port of Veracruz, initially believed to be 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 put Moctezuma on notice 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 just over 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 dead of night, shedding very little blood and capturing Narváez only moments after they had engaged. After showing the soldiers the gold ornaments, and inciting them to join him, most changed sides in favor of Cortés, who thanks to this tripled his troops overnight. For his part, Narváez returned the way he had come, with a few followers, while Cortés returned to Tenochtitlán.

The Massacre of the Great Temple

Meanwhile, in Tenochtitlan, Alvarado, fearful of a massive concentration of warriors in the Plaza Mayor of Tenochtitlán, and fearing the possible omens of Cholula, had committed a massacre of natives, nobles, caciques and army chiefs when they were celebrating the festival. of Tóxcatl (fifth month of the 18 that the Mexica calendar had) in honor of Tezcatlipoca. Some sources also speak of the cult of the ever-present Huitzilopochtli. Given Alvarado's blunder, the population, logically, was outraged, because Pedro de Alvarado took away their jewelry and precious materials that they wore. Having done this, the villagers rebelled against Moctezuma, having no respect for him. The Spaniards had to take refuge in the palace's lodgings.

The Rebellion and The Sad Night

On June 24, 1520, Cortés's army entered the city again. Moctezuma's brother, Cuitláhuac, was released to manage the pacification, but instead, he put himself at the head of the Mexicas and joined the chief of the caciques, called Cuauhtémoc -and who would be the next Mexica tlatoani-, to oppose the Spanish occupation. Cortés got Moctezuma to try to appease the protesters and let the Spanish leave the city. There are two versions of Moctezuma's death: one is that when he was talking to the people about him, he received a stone from the Mexica themselves that mortally wounded him; the other says that Hernán Cortés ordered him killed when he saw that he could not calm the people, although this last version was provided by the Mexica and is considered less likely.

This being the situation, the Spanish soldiers were besieged in the house where they were staying, surrounded by crowds of outraged Indians. The besieged saw their water, ammunition and all kinds of food diminish. The only way out was withdrawal. And they did it on the rainy night of June 30 to July 1, 1520, known as the Sad Night.. Silently slipping away, the Spaniards headed for one of the causeways that led out of Tenochtitlan. They were not far from completing their retreat when they were discovered by an old woman, who raised the alarm, and within moments, thousands of Mexica warriors stormed the Spaniards; they harassed them along the causeway, while others attacked from their canoes. In that retreat most of the Spaniards fell, especially those who arrived with Narváez, who, taking many pieces of gold with them, despite Cortés's warnings, drowned in the lake: A large number of artillery pieces were also lost and horses, as well as much of the treasure that was transported. Pursued by the Mexica, on July 7, near Otumba, the Spanish reorganized,

Siege and fall of Tenochtitlan

After their defeat on the Noche Triste, the Spanish and their Tlaxcalan allies withdrew into Tlaxcala; they reorganized and attacked Tenochtitlan, laying siege to the city. It is worth reflecting on whether or not the alliance of the Tlaxcaltecas could be considered legitimate, because given the fragility of the Spanish, they could have eliminated them and they did not. Instead of that, they were provisioned and sheltered, with the consequent obtaining of perks and subsequent privileges, which the conqueror this time seems to have respected.

Given the indignation of the Mexicas for the desecration of one of their main festivals -where the massacre perpetrated by Alvarado takes place-, and understanding that the Mexica would not surrender, Cortés orders the ships that he had disabled to be brought, piece by piece, in order to to lay siege to Tenochtitlan; The ships were rebuilt in the lake that surrounded the city and after a siege that lasted 75 days, in which the Mexicas who fought until their practical extermination, were finally defeated and subjected to slavery. It is for this reason that we can say that the current indigenous descendants or the miscegenation derived from them, occurred more than with the Mexica people, with the Tlaxcalan victors and other indigenous lordships that, at the end of the war, obtained the status of main in their provinces and in different cases,

After the conquest was consummated, Cortés is accompanied by Cuauhtémoc. Cortés takes Cuauhtémoc on his subsequent expeditions where he is later killed, presumably hanged by Cortés.

Cortes' journey to Las Hibueras

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

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

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

Hernán Cortés went to Veracruz towards Las Hibueras in the company of his army, where he embarked to the town of the Holy Spirit. From there he continued by land to Tabasco passing through Cupilco, Cimatán, Nacaxuxuca, Zaguatán, Chilapan, Ixtapa, Acalán, Tatahuitalpan, Teutiercas and Usumacinta. According to researcher Juan Miralles, one of the chiefs of Itzamkanac warned Cortés that Cuauhtémoc along with Tetlepanquétzal and Coanácoch were promoting a plot to kill him along with all the Spaniards. Cortés detained the suspects of the possible uprising and questioned them separately. The interrogation revealed that the main culprits were Cuauhtémoc and Tetlepanquétzal.For this reason, to the southeast of Xicalango, still within the jurisdiction of Acalán of the Chontal Mayas, the last huey tlatoani Cuauhtémoc was sentenced and executed by hanging. The lord of Tlacopan Tetlepanquétzal and very probably the lord of Tetzcuco, Coanácoch, were also executed. According to Ixtlilxóchitl, the hanging was in Acalán and not in Itzamkanac, on the other hand Coanácoch was saved when he was being executed by hanging, however he died as a result of the action, a few days later, on February 28, 1525 Years later, Juan de Torquemada in his Monarquia Indiana introduced the version that Coanácoch was another of those hanged.... being about to hang the Quauhtemoc, he said these words: «O Captain Malinche, days ago I had understood, and had known your false words: that you had to give me this death, because I did not give it to myself, when you surrendered in my city of Mexico; Why do you kill me without justice?Conquest of Yucatan, Diego López de Cogolludo.

The journey continued and the expedition had contact with the Itza Mayans in the vicinity of Tayasal. They were well received and Cortés interviewed the Halach Uinik Ah Can Ek (Canek). Cortés explained what had happened with the Mexica power, and the halach uinik still did not have the news from Tenochtitlan, but he told him about news of wars that had taken place with the Chontal Maya of Centla with the dzules (white men). Cortés explained that he was the captain of those wars and tried to convince them to convert to Christianity. Given the shelter of the city and the number of Mayan inhabitants, Cortés preferred not to carry out any military action and said goodbye to the Itza., leaving behind an injured and dying horse that Ah Can Ek promised to take care of.In 1618 Franciscan missionaries found Mayan descendants worshiping a horse made of wood.

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

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

Cortés realized that Captain Cristóbal de Olid, a man he trusted, had entered into deals with his main enemy, none other than the Governor of Cuba, Diego de Velázquez, to rob Cortés of the new lands that would have been to discover on the voyage of exploration and conquest that he himself was paying for it. The conqueror mounted a second expedition in June 1524 under the command of his cousin Francisco de las Casas, in five ships and with one hundred men with orders to apprehend and punish the infidel Cristóbal de Olid. When the punitive expedition arrived in present-day Honduras after a shipwreck, skirmishes ensued and Cortés's envoy, his cousin Francisco de las Casas, was taken prisoner in the company of Gil González de Ávila, who recently arrived with the title of governor. of the Sweet Gulf.

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

In the area, the neighboring towns of Papayca and Chiapaxina had received the Spaniards in a friendly way, but a short time later conditions changed and fighting began. Cortés managed to capture the main lords called 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, whom Cortés kept in captivity, but hostilities continued. Nearby, Cortés founded the town of Trujillo on May 18, 1525 and appointed Juan de Medina as mayor.However, in the vicinity of the area, the Lencas, allied with the Cares and led by the Lenca leader Lempira, resisted the conquest for twelve years. In 1537 during the conquest campaigns 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 in the town of Trujillo. Upon hearing that the area was rich in precious metals, Cortés became interested in the mines and actions of conquest. He was preparing his expedition to Nicaragua when Fray Diego de Altamirano arrived with news about the situation in Mexico City, so he preferred to cancel his expedition and return by sea to San Juan de Ulúa. He sent his soldiers to Guatemala to populate the area and support Pedro de Alvarado, and left the town of Trujillo on April 25, 1526.

Discovery of "California"

Know that at the right hand of the Indies there is an island called

California very close to one side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it was populated by black women, without there being a man there, since they lived in the manner of the Amazons. They were of beautiful and robust bodies, fiery courage and great strength. His island was the strongest in the world, with its rugged cliffs and rocky shores. Their weapons were all made of gold and of the same metal were the harnesses of the wild beasts that they used to tame to ride them, because there was no metal other than gold on the entire island.The Sergas of Esplandián, by García Ordóñez de Montalvo (Seville, 1510).

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

In the fourth Letter of Relationship, dated in Mexico on October 15, 1524, Hernán Cortés writes to the King of Spain about the preparation of ships to explore and subdue new kingdoms on the South Sea (Pacific Ocean), an idea that boiled in his mind since two years ago, just completed the conquest of the great Tenochtitlan. In 1529, while Cortés was in Spain, he signed an agreement with the Spanish Crown by which he was obliged to send at his expense «armed forces to discover islands and territories in the South Sea».

He wanted to find, in addition to the territorial domain and the possible earnings in precious metals in the new lands to be discovered, a sea passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic, since it was thought that if Ferdinand Magellan had found a strait that connected both oceans to the South, there should also be another passage to the North. That sea passage was the mythical Anian Strait. In the mentioned agreement it was stipulated that of the lands and profits that were obtained, a tenth part would correspond to the discoverer in perpetual property, for himself and his descendants.

Later expeditions

The first expedition

During his stay in Spain in 1529, Cortés obtained from Carlos V the title of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca and the government over future discoveries in the South Sea.Already back in Mexico, on June 30, 1532, he sent his cousin Diego Hurtado de Mendoza to explore the islands and coastlines of the South Sea, beyond the limits of the audiencia of Nueva Galicia governed by Nuño de Guzmán staunch enemy of Hernán Cortés. The expedition departed in two ships from the Gulf of Tehuantepec, after touching the current port of Manzanillo (Colima) they went along the coasts of Jalisco and Nayarit, which at that time were part of the audience of Nueva Galicia, until discovering the Islands 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 by order of Nuño de Guzmán, owner and lord of the region.

One of the ships battered by the storms undertook the return, arrived at the coast of Jalisco and ended up in the hands of Nuño de Guzmán, while the other ship in which Diego Hurtado de Mendoza was traveling headed north, none of which ever they were on board returned to New Spain, no news was heard from them again, years later the author of the Second Anonymous Report of the journey that Nuño de Guzmán made to Nueva Galicia, collected some information that suggests that the ship that commanded by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza had been shipwrecked on the north coast of what is now the state of Sinaloa, perishing himself and the rest of the crew.

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 ship San Lázaro commanded by Captain Hernando de Grijalva.

The expedition set sail from the port of Manzanillo today on October 30, 1533, by December 20 the ships had separated. The San Lázaro ship, which had gone ahead, waited in vain for the Concepción ship for three days and, having no sighting of the accompanying ship, dedicated 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 while he slept, then attacked the crew members who were loyal to the murdered captain and later abandoned the wounded in the coasts of Michoacán along with the Franciscan friars who accompanied him on the journey.

Fortún Jiménez sailed northwest along the coast and at some point turned west and arrived at a peaceful bay, today it is known that he arrived at the current city and port of La Paz, he thought he had arrived at an island, he never knew that he had arrived at a peninsula that would eventually be called the Baja California peninsula, there he met natives who spoke an unknown language and were also half-naked, they were very different from the natives of the Mexican highlands who had their own culture.

The crew members who accompanied him, seeing the half-naked women and because of the long sexual vigil, dedicated themselves to taking them by force. By then they had realized that the place had an abundance of pearls that the natives extracted from the shells of mollusks that abounded in the bay, so they dedicated themselves to looting the place and abusing the women.

It is necessary to highlight that Fortún Jiménez and his companions did not give any name to any of the sites they found, being other explorers who gave names to the places visited by Fortún Jiménez.

The abuse of the women by the crew, coupled with the looting to which they engaged, 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, barely boarding the ship Concepción, they sailed erratically for several days until they reached the coast of what is today the state of Jalisco, where they ran into the subordinates of Nuño de Guzmán who seized the ship and took them prisoner.

The third expedition

After having sponsored two exploration trips in the South Sea and without having obtained material results, Hernán Cortés decided to lead the third exploration trip.

Annoyed Cortés because Nuño de Guzmán, his archenemy always, had requisitioned a ship from him 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 land and from there mount the third expedition, for it he prepared a large number of troops on foot and on horseback to march on the province of Nueva Galicia of which Nuño de Guzmán was governor.

The viceroy of New Spain warned Hernán Cortés on September 4, 1534 "not to confront the person who had requisitioned his ships" to which Hernán Cortés refused, alleging that he had spent more than 100,000 gold castellanos, in addition to having been designated by his majesty the king of Spain Carlos 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 (in which Grijalva returned from the second expedition to the South Sea), and the Santa Águeda and Santo Tomás, which had just been built.

Cortés's project was ambitious, he would send the ships to Chametla Sinaloa (near the current town of Escuinapa) in the territory governed by Nuño de Guzmán and there he would board the land army commanded by him. To reach Chametla, Cortés had to cross for several days with his army the New Kingdom of Nueva Galicia, Nueva Galicia was a province of New Spain governed by his staunch enemy Nuño de Guzmán.

Bernal Díaz del Castillo recounts that when it became known in New Spain that the Marquis of Oaxaca was going on a conquest again, many "believed that it was a true and rich thing" and horsemen, arquebusiers and crossbowmen, and 34 married men offered to serve him. with their women, a total of 320 people and 150 horses. And he adds that the ships were very well supplied with biscuits, meat, oil, wine and vinegar, a lot of ransom, three blacksmiths with their forges and two shipwrights with their tools, as well as clerics and religious, and doctors, surgeons and apothecary.

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

After Cortés' departure, Nuño de Guzmán addressed a letter to the Audiencia in Mexico "complaining that the Marquis del Valle wanted to penetrate his government with his people, since he was only Captain General of New Spain."

In Chametla (Sinaloa), after crossing the current states of Jalisco and Nayarit, a territory known as part of the kingdom of Nueva Galicia at that time, Cortés and his retinue embarked on the ships Santa Águeda and San Lázaro, on which 113 laborers boarded. 40 horsemen with everything on horseback and left 60 more horsemen on the ground, as reported to the Royal Court by Governor Nuño de Guzmán.

Once embarked on the ship San Lázaro, Cortés together with his expedition headed northwest, and on May 3, 1535, they arrived at the bay that he named Bahía de la Santa Cruz, currently La Paz (Baja California Sur), a place in which confirmed the death of his subordinate Fortún Jiménez at the hands of the natives.

Once Cortés had taken possession of the Bay of Santa Cruz, he decided to establish a colony, he ordered the soldiers and supplies that he had left in Sinaloa to be brought but the bad weather did not help him, the ships were lost and he only returned to the bay from the Santa Cruz a ship carrying a load of fifty bushels of corn, insufficient to feed the population, for which Cortés personally went out in search of food, but what he achieved was insufficient, for which he decided to return to New Spain with the intention of to supply from there to the new colony.

Francisco de Ulloa was left in command of the town of Santa Cruz, but the complaints of the relatives of those who had remained on the peninsula made the viceroy order the abandonment of the town and the return of the settlers to New Spain.

The fourth expedition

Hernán Cortés, who had already sponsored three exploration trips to the South Sea (Pacific Ocean) and which had ended in failure, decides to send a fourth exploration trip to the South Sea under the command of Francisco de Ulloa in 1539. The expedition from the port of Acapulco on July 8 of the aforementioned year aboard the ships Santo Tomás, Santa Águeda and Trinidad, at the height of the Marías Islands they were forced to abandon the ship Santo Tomás, for which they continued the voyage of exploration on the two remaining vessels.

They entered the Gulf of California and visited the abandoned town of Santa Cruz, currently known as the city of La Paz, on the outward journey and on the outward journey they reached the northern end of the gulf on September 28, to what is currently known as the mouth of the Colorado River and they called the mouth of the Ancón de San Andrés River, a brief record was drawn up whose text is transcribed:moving stones from one part to another, and drawing water from the sea; all as a sign of possession.(...) Witnesses who were present at what was said are the reverend parents of Mr. San Francisco, Father Fray Raymundo, Father Fray Antonio de Mena, Francisco de Terrazas, overseer Diego de Haro, Gabriel Márquez. Date day month and year above. And I, Pedro de Palenzia, notary public of this army, wrote to you according to what happened to me; therefore I made here this sign of mine, which is such, in testimony of truth. — Pedro de Palencia, notary public. Frater Ramundus Alilius, Frater Antonius de Mena, — Gabriel Márquez. — Diego de Haro. —Francisco de Terrazas.Travel record

After having landed and taken possession of the lands at the northern end of the Mar Vermeja (known today as the Gulf of California), a name given to it because of the reddish coloration of the waters, which were dyed with the waters coming from the Colorado River, began the return to the town of Santa Cruz, doubled Cape San Lucas and entered the Pacific Ocean. They passed through what is now Magdalena Bay on December 5 without having entered because Ulloa was wounded, due to a skirmish he had with the natives.

On April 5, 1540, he addressed to Cortés from the island of Cedros a report of the events of the exploration on the ship Santa Águeda, on the ship Trinidad he continued with the exploration, Francisco de Ulloa and his associates were never heard from again. sailing companions.

Death and successive transfers of his remains

In 1541, Cortés returned to Spain, where he died six years later, on Friday, December 2, 1547, when he planned to return to his American possessions. His death occurred in a palace house in Castilleja de la Cuesta that belonged to the jury Don Alonso Rodríguez, a friend of Hernán Cortés, in which the conqueror 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, under the steps of the main altar, with an epitaph dedicated to him by his son Martín Cortés, second Marquis of the Valley. The epitaph read:Father whose fate improperly

This underworld possessed

Value that our age enriched,Rest in peace now, forever.Martin Cortes

The mortal remains of Hernán Cortés were buried several times. This was due, in part, because in his will he changed the location of the place where he wished to rest several times. When he lived in New Spain, he first requested to be buried in the church next to the Hospital de Jesús Nazareno, in Mexico City, a hospital that the conqueror had founded. Later he declared his wishes to be buried in a monastery that he had ordered to be built in Coyoacán, a town near the Mexican capital, a monastery that was never built because he had to leave for Spain in order to face a residency lawsuit that was quoted. In October 1547, a few weeks before his death, he had once more modified his will to indicate his wish to be buried in the parish of the place where he died.​

In 1550, three years after his death, his remains were moved into the same church of San Isidoro del Campo, and this time he was buried right next to the altar dedicated to Santa Catalina.

In 1566, and by family decision, his mortal remains were transferred to New Spain and buried together with his mother and one of his daughters in the temple of San Francisco de 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 del Valle 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 Cortés's remains were buried near the altar. mayor (in a niche behind the tabernacle) in the church of the convent of San Francisco (Mexico), located in front of Plaza de Guardiola, in the Mexican capital, there they left the following inscription engraved: Ferdinandi Cortés ossa servatur hic fame.

In 1716 a remodeling of the temple 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 viceroyalty authorities exhumed the remains of Cortés again in order to comply with the wishes of the conqueror of Mexico who once requested to be buried in the church next to the Jesús Nazareno hospital, so they removed the bones of Cortés from the temple of San Francisco that lay in his niche in a wood and glass urn with silver handles and painted on the head of the urn the coat of arms of the Marquis of Oaxaca, his remains were transferred with great pomp to what was believed to be his last resting place, silver bows were placed on the sepulcher and inside the temple a plinth was erected and on the plinth a bust of the conqueror, in that place his remains would rest for 23 years.

In 1823, two years after the independence of Mexico, the memorial began to honor the insurgents killed during the War of Independence, their remains were taken to Mexico City, in whose cathedral they were deposited, a great nationalist movement arose among the inhabitants of the Mexican capital to the extent that it was feared that a mob would assault the temple to take the remains of Cortés, for this reason the Mexican minister Lucas Alamán and the senior 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 skeleton was hidden under the platform of the temple of the Jesús Nazareno hospital,for thirteen years the remains remained hidden there.

In 1836, once the passions had calmed, the remains were removed and deposited in a niche that was built in the wall of the temple next to where the mausoleum was, in that place the remains rested for 110 years until they were found. Minister Lucas Alamán at some point informed the Spanish embassy of the place where Cortés's remains had been deposited.

In 1946, some historians from the Colegio de México had access to the notarial act, which detailed the last resting place of Cortés and decided to look for the remains, on Monday, November 25 of the same year, the historians found the niche that kept 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 conferred 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 were found and a bronze plaque with the engraved coat of arms of Cortés and the inscription was placed on the church wall:

HERNAN CORTES1485-1547

Currently, the remains of the Spanish conqueror rest in the place he chose in his youth to be buried: the temple of the Hospital de Jesús Nazareno. Unfortunately, today the old church is abandoned and with few means to ensure its proper restoration.

Heraldry

King Carlos I recognized Cortés' deeds by granting him and his descendants a coat of arms granted in Madrid on March 7, 1525:[...Bring by your own and known arms a shield that in the middle of the right hand at the top there is a black double-headed eagle on a white field that are the arms of our empire and in the other half of the said half shield at the bottom a golden lion in a red field in memory of what you said hernando cortes and for your industry and effort you brought things to the state above and in the middle of the other half shield of the left hand to the top three gold crowns in black field launa on two o'clock in memory of three lords of the great city of tenustitan and its provinces that you conquered who was the first muteccuma who was killed by the indians fearing him as a prisoner and cuetaoacion his brother who happened in the manor and he rebelled against us and kicked you out of the said city and the other thing that happenedin the said manor guauctemncin and supported the said revelation until you defeated and arrested him and in the other half of the said half shield from the left hand to the bottom you could bring the city of tenustitan armed on water in memory that by force of arms you won and held our lordship and by the border of the said shield in yellow field seven captains and lords of seven provinces and towns that are in the lagoon and around it who rebelled against us and the enastes and apprehended in the said city of tenustitan pressed and tied with a chain that comes to be closed with a padlock below the said shield and on top of it a helmet closed with its tinble in a shield atal [...]]]]]]]gun privilege

The weapons represent a synopsis of the conqueror's deeds. The first quarter represents the patronage of the emperor by means of the two-headed eagle typical of the Holy Roman Empire, although on a silver field instead of the usual gold. The second represents the victory over the last three huey tlatoqueor great rulers of Tenochtitlan. The third represents the value of Cortés ("industry and effort") and finally the fourth quarter brings the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan on waves of azure and silver (representing Lake Texcoco, similar to the coat of arms granted to Mexico City two years before, in which the city was symbolized, however, with a golden castle). The border (called orla, which is another heraldic piece) is a common piece granted by the emperor and symbolizes the indigenous leaders of the cities near Tenochtitlan through chains and heads. The shield is stamped with a helmet, knighthood and proper to the status of Cortés de hidalgo.

Later Cortés would modify the coat of arms by adding several personal symbols. Above all, he added an escutcheon with the arms of the Rodríguez de las Varillas family, which were the arms that he chose to use as belonging to his lineage. Hernán Cortés's father, Martín Cortés, although he bore the surname of his mother, belonged through his father to the Extremaduran branch of the illustrious Monroy family, or more correctly to the Monroy-Rodríguez de las Varillas family. Since the Monroys were united by marriage with the Rodríguez de las Varillas, since then they have used a combination of the two arms as their coat of arms: those of the Monroys, quartered shield, in the first and fourth quarters a gold castle on a field of gules, in the second and third quarters a field of white and blue veros; and those of the Rodríguez de las Varillas family,​). Possibly to avoid overloading their new weapons and because the Cortés did not have their own weapons, Hernán Cortés only incorporated as a reference to his lineage the same escutcheon that appeared on the Monroy arms, and which, as has already been said, were those of the the Rodriguez de las Varillas family. Later, following the example of the conqueror, there were members of the Cortés family who took the surname Cortés de Monroy and who used the coat of arms of Aragon, as was the case of Pedro Cortés de Monroy y Zabala, named Marquis of Piedra Blanca in 1697. of Huana. Hernán Cortés also later added a personal motto to his coat of arms: Judicium domini aprehendit eos et fortitudo ejus corroboravit brachium meum. (The lord judged them in his deeds and strengthened my arm). And on his helmet he added a winged lion which some of his descendants continued to use.

On July 20, 1529, the King granted Cortés the nobility title of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, for which he was able to stamp his arms with a Marquis crown, in addition to other benefits subject to this privilege.The shields of Hernán Cortés

Grant of 1525

Later modification of the granted shield

Shield as Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca

Monuments and artistic representations in Mexico

Few representations of Cortés exist in Mexico. However, many geographical 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 in Mexico City is in the pass between the Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl volcanoes, where Cortés led his soldiers on their march to Mexico City. It is currently known as the Paso de Cortés.

Muralist Diego Rivera painted several depictions of him, but the most famous depicts him as a powerful and sinister figure, along with 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 made public a copy of the bust of Cortés made by Manuel Tolsá in the Hospital de Jesús Nazareno with an official ceremony, but soon a nationalist group tried to destroy it, so it had to be removed from public view. Today the copy of the bust is in the "The Hospital of Jesus" in a little visited corner, while the original is in Naples, Italy, in the Villa Pignatelli (owned by the descendants of Cortés).

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

There is another statue of Cortés, made by Sebastián Aparicio, in the city of Cuernavaca, state of Morelos. He was in a popular hotel El Casino de la Selva. The figure of Cortés is barely recognizable, which is why it provoked very little controversy. The hotel was closed to make a shopping center, and the statue was left out of public display by order of COSTCO, the builder of the shopping center, and to date it is not available to the public.