Hernán Cortés Biography

Hernán Cortés Monroy Pizarro Altamirano, Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, was born in Medellin, Corona de Castilla, in 1485 and died in Castilleja de la Cuesta, Corona de Castilla, on December 2, 1547. He was a Spanish conqueror who subdued the Mexica empire (Aztecs) and helped in the founding of New Spain.

Hernán Cortés was the son of the Hidalgo Martín Cortés and Catalina Pizarro Altamirano. On the side of his mother, he was distantly related to Francisco Pizarro, who conquered Peru. When he was fourteen years old, his father sent him to Salamanca to study law. He would stay for two years receiving instruction from a scribe from Valladolid, although it is not known if he enrolled or not in the University of Salamanca. What is known is that Hernán Cortés wished eagerly to embark on a typical adventure of the time. For that reason, he tried to embark with a route to the Indians, but they did not accept it. He also wanted to be part of the campaigns developed by Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba in Italy without any results. Finally, in 1504, he was able to embark on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola where he was a planter and a colonial official.

In 1511, he was part of the conquest of the island of Cuba, which was led by the then governor Diego de Velázquez. This one, for his collaboration, gave him slaves and lands. Later, he would be Mayor in Santiago de Cuba, although he would be put in prison shortly after by the same Velázquez, who distrusted him thinking that Cortes would conspire against him. Despite this, Hernán married his sister-in-law, Catalina Juárez, and was sent to preside over the third expedition on the Yucatan coast. However, Catalina Juárez would die in suspicious circumstances, Hernán Cortés

being accused of having killed her. Oblivious to Velazquez’s orders and the rumors that were spread about him, Cortes gathered a large number of soldiers thanks to his oratory and left Cuba on February 10, 1519.

For the same year, Hernan Cortes arrived with his men to Cozumel, where he subdued the Mayan population and rescued several Spanish warriors who had been prisoners. At that time, Hernán had a Mayan translator he called Melchorejo. Then he continued his course by the coast of Yucatan and conquered the city of Potonchán, where Cortes and his obtained many goods and resources, between which they were counted, twenty slaves. One of them was an indigenous woman named Malintzin, who was baptized as Marina. This served both as an interpreter and as a lover to Hernán Cortés, with whom he had Martín Cortés as his son. That same year, Hernán would found the town of Santa María de la Victoria, being this the first population of Spain in the region and one of the first on the continent.

Later, he traveled to the country that some Indians had told him about, Mexico. In front of the city of Mexica de Quiahuiztlán, he founded Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, and then he would disassociate himself from Velázquez to conquer in the name of the king. Thus, he obtained the power to delegate mayors and officials. Cortés, seeing how difficult it would be to conquer the Mexican culture, decided to ally with their enemies. Thus, with the help especially of the Totonocos, Cortés first conquered Tlaxcala and then reached Tenochtitlán, where Emperor Moctezuma II opened the gates of his city and lodged him.

After this, a group of soldiers sent by Velázquez attacked the garrisons of Cortés outside the Mexica city, destroying their ships. Hernán would then leave the city of Tenochtitlán to fight against the people of Velázquez, whom he dominated by attacking them by surprise at dawn. Many of the soldiers who had come to fight against him, quickly joined in seeing the riches he was carrying. Thus, once the situation turned out, Cortés returned to Tenochtitlán. Due to a massacre previously executed by one of Cortés’ warriors, the Mexicas rebelled against Moctezuma II, who died in strange circumstances, and expelled the Spaniards from the city, killing a large number of foreign soldiers. After this, Cortes organized his men and, with the help of the Tlaxcalans, besieged the city for 75 days, during which Tenochtitlán was finally taken by the conquerors.

After this, Cortes would launch the expedition of Las Hibueras, current Republic of Honduras, to hear about the vast wealth that was in that territory. Later, he would discover the peninsula of Baja California, and, on returning to Spain in 1529, he would obtain from King Carlos V his title of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca. Then he returned to Mexico, where he made four more expeditions.

Finally, after having married for the second time and having had five illegitimate children and one with his second wife, Hernán Cortés died on December 2 in 1547 in Castilleja de la Cuesta, just when he wanted to return to America to enjoy the riches that he had gotten there.