Person

Moctezuma II

Ruler of Tenochtitlan when the Spaniards arrived; held by them from soon after their arrival in November 1519, and dead by early July 1520.

11 links, 8 backed by primary records. 3 more in open data

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Also known as: Montezuma, Motecuhzoma, Moctezuma Xocoyotzin
Wikidata: Q141791

How each side tells it

According to Hernán Cortés

intervened in Cortés enters Tenochtitlan Nov 1519
involved in Cortés enters Tenochtitlan
involved in Death of Moctezuma
involved in Moctezuma taken into the Spanish quarters

According to Bernal Díaz del Castillo

involved in Death of Moctezuma
involved in Toxcatl massacre

According to Florentine Codex

involved in Death of Moctezuma

According to Francis Augustus MacNutt

involved in Death of Moctezuma
involved in Death of Moctezuma
involved in Death of Moctezuma

Cortés, Bernal Díaz del Castillo and the Florentine Codex each tell his last months differently. See Death of Moctezuma.

Connections 11

intervened in

Cortés enters Tenochtitlan Nov 1519 gave the speech that Cortés reports According to Hernán Cortés Primary record 1
This speech is Cortés's report to his king. Restall argues that the Cortés-as-god story grew later; see the story.
Moctezuma taken into the Spanish quarters Nov 1519 was taken to the Spanish quarters Primary record 1

involved in

Cortés enters Tenochtitlan According to Hernán Cortés Primary record 1
Cortés reports that Moctezuma made this speech. It is his report to his king.
Death of Moctezuma According to Hernán Cortés Primary record 1
Death of Moctezuma According to Bernal Díaz del Castillo Primary record 2
Death of Moctezuma According to Florentine Codex Primary record 3
Book 12 says the Spaniards cast out the bodies of Moctezuma and Itzquauhtzin, who had died; the passage as read here does not say who killed him. The scan's English is partly garbled at this line; the book's list of illustrations and the Nahuatl word omjcque (they died) agree. An editors' note in the same book, from the same scan, says the many versions of his death fall into two groups, one that the Spaniards killed him and one that a stone struck him as he tried to calm his people.
Death of Moctezuma According to Francis Augustus MacNutt Scholarship & press 4
MacNutt: the Spaniards attributed his death to the stone; the Mexicans asserted Cortés had him put to death. He quotes Durán as saying they found him dead with chains on his feet and five dagger wounds in his breast. These are accounts reported, not findings.
Death of Moctezuma According to Francis Augustus MacNutt Scholarship & press 4
MacNutt reports that the Codex Ramírez, through Orozco y Berra, says Moctezuma was found stabbed by the Spaniards.
Death of Moctezuma According to Francis Augustus MacNutt Scholarship & press 4
MacNutt's date.
Moctezuma taken into the Spanish quarters According to Hernán Cortés Primary record 1
Toxcatl massacre According to Bernal Díaz del Castillo Primary record 2
Bernal Díaz reports that envoys sent by Moctezuma brought this complaint to Cortés.

Timeline 2 dates

Nov 1519 Moctezuma II intervened in Cortés enters Tenochtitlan According to Hernán Cortés
Nov 1519 Moctezuma II intervened in Moctezuma taken into the Spanish quarters

Proof 4 sources

Letters of Cortés: the five letters of relation to the Emperor Charles V, volume 1 (English translation by Francis Augustus MacNutt, 1908; the Second Letter is dated 30 October 1520), G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London (scan on the Internet Archive), 1908. Primary record
from what you tell us of your great lord, or king, who has sent you here, we believe, and hold for certain, that he is our rightful sovereign
I earnestly prayed him not to feel pained at this, because he would not be kept a prisoner, but would have entire liberty
one of his own subjects struck him on the head with a stone, with such force that within three days he died
The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, volume 1 (English translation by John Ingram Lockhart, 1844; text via Project Gutenberg #32474), Project Gutenberg (from the translation published in London, 1844), 1844. Primary record
he was struck by an arrow, and three stones from a sling, by which he was wounded in the arm, leg, and in his head
he had, without any provocation, sallied out with the whole of his troops, and fallen unawares upon their chiefs and caziques while they were celebrating a feast in honour of their gods
Florentine Codex, Book 12: The Conquest of Mexico (Nahuatl text gathered under Bernardino de Sahagún in the 1500s; English translation by Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble, second edition, 1975), School of American Research and the University of Utah; the manuscript is on the Getty Research Institute's Digital Florentine Codex, 1975. Primary record
And when they were seen, when they were known to be Moctezuma and Itzquauhtzin, then they quickly took up Moctezuma in their arms.
Letters of Cortés, volume 1: MacNutt's introduction and appendices (1908), G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London (scan on the Internet Archive), 1908. Scholarship & press
by the Mexicans, it was on the contrary, asserted that he was put to death by Cortes
They found him dead with chains upon his feet, and five dagger wounds in his breast
The Codex Ramirez, before quoted from the work of Orozco y Berra, states that Montezuma was found stabbed to death by the Spaniards, with the other chiefs who shared his captivity.
Montezuma Xocoyotzin ninth king of Mexico died on June 30, 1520

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