Doña Leonor Cortés Moctezuma (born c. 1528 – died before 1594) was the out-of-wedlock daughter of Hernán Cortés, conquistador of

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, and Doña

Isabel Moctezuma Doña Isabel Moctezuma (born Tecuichpoch Ichcaxochitzin; 1509/1510 – 1550/1551) was a daughter of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II. She was the consort of Atlixcatzin, a tlacateccatl, and of the Aztec emperors Cuitlahuac, and Cuauhtemoc and as suc ...

the eldest daughter of the

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...

Emperor Moctezuma II. She was acknowledged by her father and married

Juan de Tolosa Juan de Tolosa (c. 1515-before 1594) was a Spanish Basque conquistador. He discovered rich silver deposits near the present day city of Zacatecas, Mexico, in 1546. Early life Juan de Tolosa was born in the sixteenth century in or near Tolosa, Spa ...

, one of the discoverers of the silver mines in

Zacatecas , image_map = Zacatecas in Mexico (location map scheme).svg , map_caption = State of Zacatecas within Mexico , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type ...

Background

Doña Isabel Moctezuma was married and widowed four times by the time she was 17 or 18 years old. With the death of her fourth husband in 1527, Cortés, the ruler of New Spain moved her into his palace and, shortly, she became pregnant with her first child. ''Moctezuma’s Children: Aztec Royalty under Spanish Rule, 1520–1570''. Austin: U of TX Press, 2005, p. 51 The relationship between Cortés and Doña Isabel was not a happy one and he married the pregnant Doña Isabel to a subordinate, Pedro Gallego de Andrade. Four or five months later in 1528 Doña Leonor was born. Doña Leonor was separated from her mother and raised in the household of Juan Gutiérrez de Altamirano. Cortés, however, acknowledged Doña Leonor as his daughter and ensured that her life would be comfortable.Sagaon Infante, Raquel, "Testamento de Isabel Moctezuma."
accessed Dec 25, 2010

Marriage and family

Doña Leonor, bearing the two most prestigious surnames in Mexico, became extremely wealthy. Her father, Hernán Cortés, died in 1547 in Spain, leaving her 10,000 ducats and her mother Doña Isabel Moctezuma gave her part of her estate, apparently reconciled with her out-of-wedlock daughter. She accepted marriage with

, one of the discoverers of the silver mines and founders of the city of

in 1546. With her half brother, Luis Cortés, she traveled from Mexico City to Zacatecas in 1550 to be married. The colonial aristocracy of Zacatecas was a close knit community of Basques intermarried with Spanish and Aztec aristocracy. The couple had at least three children. Juan de Tolosa Cortés de Moctezuma, born in the 1550s, became a priest and Vicar of Zacatecas. Leonor de Tolosa Cortés Moctezuma, also born in the 1550s, married into another of the Basque founding families of Zacatecas. Her husband was Cristóbal de Zaldivar Mendoza. Isabel de Tolosa Cortés Moctezuma, born about 1568, married

Juan de Oñate Juan de Oñate y Salazar (; 1550–1626) was a Spanish conquistador from New Spain, explorer, and colonial governor of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in the viceroyalty of New Spain. He led early Spanish expeditions to the Great ...

who founded the Spanish colony of

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

in 1598. Other daughters, names unknown, are mentioned in the records as being in a convent in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

in 1604.

Death

The date of Doña Leonor's death is unknown, although apparently she died, as did her husband, before 1594.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cortes Moctezuma, Leonor

Leonor Leonor or Léonor is a short form of the given name Eleanor. People bearing the name include: *Leonor Beleza (born 1948), Portuguese politician *Leonor Briones (born 1940), Filipino academic and civil servant *Leonor de Cisneros (died 1568), Sp ...

People from Zacatecas History of Mexico 1520s births Year of death unknown 16th-century Mexican people 16th-century indigenous people of the Americas Mexican people of Aztec descent Mexican people of Spanish descent Nobility of the Americas