Hernán Cortés (1485 - 1547)

Born 1485 in Medellín, Extremadura, Reinos de Castilla (España)

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 2 Dec 1547 at about age 62 in Castilleja de la Cuesta, Provincia de Sevilla, Reinos de Castilla (Andalucía, España)

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Biografía

Hernán Cortés is Notable.

Hernán Cortés, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca

His given name was actually Hernando, also written as Fernando. Hernán is an apocope which he never used but which has become universally identified with him in the historical narrative.

Cortés was born in 1485 in Medellín, Badajoz, in what would become the "Kingdom of Spain"^[1]

February 1519 - Accompanied by about 11 ships, 500 men, 13 horses, and a small number of cannon, Cortés landed on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mayan territory.

On the Yucatan Peninsula, Cortés and his men ran into Jerónimo De Aguilar, a Spanish Franciscan priest who had survived a 1511 shipwreck followed by a period in captivity with the Maya, before escaping. Cortés also learned that Aguilar's friend, Gonzalo Guerrero chose to remain "enslaved" by his Maya captors.^[2]

Malinalli Tenépatl (circa 1502 - circa 1529), Malinalli was baptized as Doña Marina. She was the most powerful woman in world and often compared to Pocahontas.

Personal Life

Cortés married as follows:

(1) Catalina Suarez ( - 2 Nov. 1522), no children

(2) in 1529 he married Doña Juana Ramirez Arellano Zuniga. Doña Juana Ramírez de Arellano de Zúñiga, daughter of don Carlos Ramírez de Arellano, 2nd Count of Aguilar and doña Juana de Zúñiga, 3 children (2 girls and a boy)

Children:

Note: not in order of birth

1. doña Catalina Pizarro, born between 1514 and 1515 in Santiago de Cuba or maybe later in Nueva España, daughter of a Cuban woman, Leonor Pizarro. Doña Catalina married Juan de Salcedo, a conqueror and encomendero, with whom she had a son, Pedro.

1. Martín Cortés, son of Malinalli Tenépatl (Doña Marina)
2. doña Ana Cortés
3. Don Martín Cortés, 2nd Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca
4. don Luis Cortés, born in 1525, son of doña Antonia or Elvira Hermosillo, a native of Trujillo (Cáceres)
5. Leonor Cortés Moctezuma -daughter of Aztec princess Tecuichpotzin (baptized Isabel), born in Tenochtitlan on July 11, 1510 and died on July 9, 1550, the eldest legitimate daughter of Moctezuma II Xocoyotzin and wife doña María Miahuaxuchitl; married to Juan de Tolosa, a Basque merchant and miner.
6. Doña Maria Cortés de Moctezuma, daughter of an Aztec princess; nothing more is known about her except that she probably was born with some deformity
7. don Luis Cortés y Ramírez de Arellano, born in Texcoco in 1530 and died shortly after his birth.
8. Doña Catalina Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca in 1531 and died shortly after her birth.
9. don Martín Cortés y Ramírez de Arellano, Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, born in Cuernavaca in 1532, married at Nalda on February 24, 1548 his twice cousin once removed doña Ana Ramírez de Arellano y Ramírez de Arellano and had issue, currently extinct in male line
10. doña María Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca between 1533 and 1536, married to don Luis de Quiñones y Pimentel, 5th Count of Luna
11. doña Catalina Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca between 1533 and 1536, died unmarried in Sevilla after the funeral of her father
12. doña Juana Cortés de Zúñiga, born in Cuernavaca between 1533 and 1536, married Don Fernando Enríquez de Ribera y Portocarrero, 2nd Duke of Alcalá de los Gazules, 3rd Marquess of Tarifa and 6th Count of Los Molares, and had issue

Fuentes

1. ↑ Himmerich y Valencia, Robert. 1991. The Encomenderos of New Spain, 1521-1555. Austin: University of Texas Press. pgs 145-148.
2. ↑ Gonzalo Guerrero had completely assimilated himself into the Mayan way of life to include marrying Zazil Há, a Maya Princess. Technically, he was a slave but he chose to remain with his wife and children. Gonzalo is considered to be one of the first Europeans to start the Mestizo race.

Ver también:

• Díaz del Castillo, Bernal, Guillermo Serés Guillén, Francisco Rico, and José María Merino. Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España. 2020.
• Dorantes de Carranza, Baltasar, and Ernesto de la Torre Villar. Sumaria relación de las cosas de la Nueva España: con noticia individual de los conquistadores y primeros pobladores españoles. México: Editorial Porrúa. 1987.
• Original Source: Hernán Cortés, The Dispatches of Hernando Cortés, The Conqueror of Mexico, addressed to the Emperor Charles V, written during the conquest, and containing a narrative of its events. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1843.
• Hernán Cortés on biography.com
• Hernando Cortes - Ages of Exploration on exploration.marinersmuseum.org
• Despite Similarities, Pocahontas Gets Love, Malinche Gets Hate. Why?
• La Malinche - caught between two worlds
• Dona Marina
• Hernán Cortés on Wikipedia