Doña Leonor Cortés Moctezuma (c. 1528 – before 1594) was the out-of-wedlock daughter of

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions o ...

, ''

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

'' of

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, and Doña Isabel Moctezuma, the eldest daughter of the

Aztec The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the Post-Classic stage, post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central ...

Emperor

Moctezuma II Moctezuma Xocoyotzin . ( – 29 June 1520), retroactively referred to in European sources as Moctezuma II, and often simply called Montezuma,Other variant spellings include Moctezuma, Motewksomah, Motecuhzomatzin, Moteuczoma, Motecuhzoma, Motē ...

. She was acknowledged by her father and married Juan de Tolosa, one of the discoverers of the silver mines in

Zacatecas Zacatecas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Zacatecas, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 31 states of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Zacatecas, 58 municipalities and its capital city is Zacatecas City, Zacatec ...

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 New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

moved her into his palace and, shortly, she became pregnant with her first child. 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.

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 Juan de Tolosa, 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 Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

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, son of Vicente de Zaldívar, who was a lieutenant captain general. *Isabel de Tolosa Cortés Moctezuma, born about 1568, married

Juan de Oñate Juan de Oñate y Salazar (; 1550–1626) was a Spanish conquistador, explorer and viceroy of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in the viceroyalty of New Spain, in the present-day U.S. state of New Mexico. He led early Spanish expedition ...

who founded the Spanish colony of

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

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

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

in 1604.

Death

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

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cortes Moctezuma, Leonor

Leonor Leonor or Léonor is the Spanish form of the given name Eleanor. People bearing the name include: * Leonor Acevedo Suárez (1876–1975), Argentine translator and mother of Jorge Luis Borges * Leonor Allende (1883–1931), Argentine writer and j ...

People from Zacatecas 1520s births Year of death unknown 16th-century Mexican people 16th-century Aztec nobility 16th-century indigenous women of the Americas Mexican people of Nahua descent Mexican people of Spanish descent 16th-century Mexican women 1590s deaths