Itzcoatl

Itzcoatl is where the Mexica stop being anyone's tributaries and start being the problem. He took the throne after Chimalpopoca died in Tepanec hands, allied with Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco and with Tlacopan, and destroyed Azcapotzalco — and then did the thing he is most remembered for among historians, which is to burn the books. The Florentine Codex reports the reasoning without embarrassment: the old paintings were destroyed because it was not fitting that the common people should know them. The history the Mexica told afterwards, including most of what is in this registry's Aztec records, is the one written after that fire.

Parentage

• Acamapichtli

Domains

• sovereignty
• war

Relations

• ally: Nezahualcoyotl

Sources

• Reference treatments of Itzcoatl, the Tepanec war and the Triple Alliance.