Xicotencatl I or Xicotencatl the Elder (c.
11 House (1425) – c.
4 Rabbit (1522)) was a long-lived ''
tlatoani'' (king) of
Tizatlan
Tizatlan, in pre-Columbian Mexico, was one of the four independent altepemeh (polities, sing. altepetl) that constituted the confederation of Tlaxcallan. Today Tizatlan is a part of the modern city of Tlaxcala, and the Pre-Columbian city is visi ...
, a
Nahua ''
altepetl'' within the
pre-Columbian confederacy of
Tlaxcala, in what is now
Mexico.
Etymology
His
Nahuatl
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...
name, pronounced , is sometimes spelled Xicohtencatl. In 1519 he was baptized as Lorenzo Xicotencatl or Don Lorenzo de Vargas.
[
]
Biography
At the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire he was very old and of poor health. He was instrumental in aligning the Tlaxcala with Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...
' Spaniards.[Diaz, B., 1963, The Conquest of New Spain, London: Penguin Books, ]
Tlaxcalan historian Diego Muñoz Camargo wrote of him that he was more than 120 years old and that he could only see Cortés if he had someone lift his eyelids for him. He also writes that he had more than 500 wives and concubines and consequently a large number of children, including Xicotencatl II and the wife of Jorge de Alvarado
Jorge de Alvarado y Contreras (born c.1480 Badajoz, Extremadura, Spaindied Madrid 1540 or 1541) was a Spanish conquistador, brother of the more famous Pedro de Alvarado.Diaz, B., 1963, The Conquest of New Spain, London: Penguin Books,
Biograph ...
- Doña Lucía. His great-grandson Captain Don Joaquin Buenaventura de la Paz was the founder of the Tlaxcalan settlement of San Esteban de Nueva Tlaxcala near Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico in the year 1591.
When his son plotted to seize Tlaxcala in Chichimecatecle's absence during the Siege of Tenochtitlan, Xicontencatl I told Cortés that "his son was wicked and he would not vouch for him, and begging Cortés to kill him." This Cortés ordered and Xicotencatl II was hanged.[
]
Poetry
One song or poem attributed to Xicotencatl is known. It is recorded in the '' Cantares mexicanos'' (fols. 57v.–58r.), a collection of Nahuatl
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...
songs probably compiled in the last third of the 16th century for Bernardino de Sahagún,[León-Portilla (1992): pp. 25–26.] and concerns the flower wars conducted between Tlaxcala and the states of the Aztec Triple Alliance.
See also
* Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
* Xicotencatl II
Notes
References
*
1420s births
1520s deaths
Longevity myths
Tlatoque
Nahuatl-language poets
Tlaxcaltec nobility
{{Mexico-bio-stub
Nobility of the Americas