Montezuma II

Born 1466
Tenochtitlán, Valley of Mexico
Died 1520
Tenochtitlán

Aztec head of state

"There were four other great Caciques [leaders] who carried the canopy above their heads, and many more lords who walked before the great Montezuma, sweeping the ground on which he was to tread, and laying down cloaks so that his feet should not touch the earth. Not one of these chieftains dared to look him in the face."

Bernal Díaz, The Conquest of New Spain; written in 1568.

Among his own people, Montezuma II was called Montezuma Xocoyotzin, meaning Montezuma the Younger. His name is more correctly spelled Moctezuma or Motecuhzoma and is pronounced mohk-the-ZOO-mah show-coi-YO-tzeen. Montezuma II became the Aztec emperor, or huey tlatoani ("he who speaks for the people" or the "Great Speaker"), when...

[The entire page is 3746 words long]

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