Moctezuma II

Moctezuma II ruled the empire at its largest for seventeen years and is remembered for his last eight months. He was a centraliser — he purged officials of common birth appointed under his uncle and replaced them with nobles — and an aggressive one, running the flowery wars against Tlaxcala without ever finishing them, which mattered enormously in 1519 when Tlaxcala found somebody else to fight alongside. How and why he received Cortés into the city is argued about endlessly and most of the arguing rests on sources written by the winners or by their allies. He died in June 1520, and the two traditions disagree about whose hand did it.

Parentage

• Axayacatl

Domains

• sovereignty

Relations

• sibling: Cuitlahuac

Sources

• Reference treatments of Moctezuma II and of his death.