Tezozomoctli (Cuauhtitlan)

Tezozomoctli
Tlatoani of Cuauhtitlan
4 Rabbit – 3 Rabbit 1418–1430
Preceded by	Xaltemoctzin
Succeeded by	Tecocoatzin
Died	1430 Atzompan
Father	Tlacateotl
Mother	Xiuhtomiyauhtzin

Tezozomoctli (originally Teçoçomoctli; ruled 1418^[1]–1430^[2]) was a tlatoani ("ruler" or "king") of the pre-Columbian Nahua altepetl (city-state) of Cuauhtitlan in central Mexico. His palace was located at Huexocalco.^[1]

Tezozomoctli was born at the Mexica city of Tlatelolco. His father was Tlacateotl, who was the second tlatoani of Tlatelolco.^[3] His mother was Xiuhtomiyauhtzin, the daughter of the tlatoani of Coatl Ichan, Acolmiztli.^[4] Tezozomoctli was probably named after his great-grandfather, the powerful ruler of Azcapotzalco.

Tezozomoctli's ancestors in three generations^[5]

Tezozomoctli	Father: Tlacateotl	Paternal Grandfather: Quaquapitzahuac	Paternal Great-grandfather: Huehue Tezozomoctli
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Tzihuacxochitzin I
		Paternal Grandmother: Acxocueitl	Paternal Great-grandfather: Acolmiztli
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Tlazozomizqui
	Mother: Xiuhtomiyauhtzin	Maternal Grandfather: Acolmiztli	Maternal Great-grandfather: Tzompantzin
			Maternal Great-grandmother: unknown

In the Tepanec War in the year 3 Rabbit (1430), Cuauhtitlan was attacked and defeated by the combined forces of the surrounding peoples. After being informed at his refuge at Cincoc Huehuetocan that Cuauhtitlan had been captured, Tezozomoctli travelled to Atzompan where he committed suicide by poison.^[2] But, of course, perhaps this is a lie written by his killers, and he was murdered by the tenochca faction of Itzcoatl and his allied. His dead is a piece in the whole campaign to destroy the Tepanec Empire and to found the Triple Alliance or the Tenochca Empire, so, the most plausible version is that the winners in the Tepanec War killed him. Not in vane, he was the tepanec candidate as ruler of Cuauhtitlan, and, after his dead, another ruler, friendly with Tenochtitlan, succeeded him.

Notes

1. Bierhorst (1992): pp. 80–81.
2. Bierhorst (1992): pp. 90–93.
3. Bierhorst (1992): p. 91; Chimalpahin (1997): vol. 2, pp. 59, 113. The Annals of Cuauhtitlan (in Bierhorst 1992) actually give Tezozomoctli's father once as Tlacateotl (p. 91) and once as Quauhtlatoa (pp. 80–81), Tlacateotl's successor.
4. Chimalpahin (1997): vol. 2, p. 113.
5. Chimalpahin (1997): vol. 2, pp. 111–133.

References

• Bierhorst, John (tr.) (1992). History and Mythology of the Aztecs: The Codex Chimalpopoca. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
• Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, Domingo Francisco de San Antón Muñón (1997). Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Texcoco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahua Altepetl in Central Mexico. ed. and tr. by Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press.