Person

Cuauhtémoc

Last ruler of Tenochtitlan; taken prisoner when the city fell on 13 August 1521.

4 links, 4 backed by primary records

How each side tells it

Last ruler of Tenochtitlan; taken prisoner when the city fell on 13 August 1521.

Connections 4

Fall of Tenochtitlan According to Hernán Cortés Primary record 1
Cuauhtémoc hanged According to Hernán Cortés Primary record 1
Cortés says an informer told him of a plot by Cuauhtémoc and the ruler of Tacuba, and that these two were hanged.
Cuauhtémoc tortured over the hidden gold According to Bernal Díaz del Castillo Primary record 2
Bernal Díaz's account: the officers proposed it, and Cortés consented to quiet the suspicion that he wanted the gold for himself.

Timeline 1 date

13 Aug 1521 Cuauhtémoc intervened in Fall of Tenochtitlan According to Hernán Cortés

Proof 2 sources

Letters of Cortés: the five letters of relation to the Emperor Charles V, volume 2 (English translation by Francis Augustus MacNutt, 1908; the Third Letter is dated 15 May 1522), G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London (scan on the Internet Archive), 1908. Primary record
this lord having been made prisoner, the war immediately ceased, which God Our Lord was pleased to bring to its end on this day, the Feast of San Hipolito, which was the 13th of August in the year 1521.
These two, therefore, were hanged, and I set the others free
The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, volume 2 (English translation by John Ingram Lockhart, 1844; text via Project Gutenberg #32475), Project Gutenberg (from the translation published in London, 1844), 1844. Primary record
The officers then proposed that Quauhtemoctzin and the king of Tlacupa, his most intimate friend and cousin, should be put to the torture, in order to extort from them a confession as to what had become of the treasures
Cortes, not willing that such a suspicion should any longer lie upon him, or that he should afterwards be called to an account on this score, at last consented that both should be put to the torture. Boiling hot oil was then applied to their feet

Page history 1 change