Montezuma

Montezuma, the name of two of the emperors of Mexico. Montezuma I., the most able of the Mexican emperors, ascended the throne about 1437, and soon after commenced a war with the neighbouring monarch of Chalco, which resulted in the annexation of that kingdom to Mexico. He next crushed a confederacy of the Tlascalans, and reigned safely till his death in 1471. Montezuma II., the last of the Mexican emperors, succeeded to the throne in 1502. Already distinguished as a warrior, henceforth he devoted his chief attention to the improvement of the laws, and indulged his taste for pomp and luxury at the cost of heavy taxation, leading to frequent revolts among his subjects. When Cortes landed in Mexico with his small army in 1519 Montezuma tried to buy off the dreaded enemy, but all his temporising could not prevent the conqueror's progress to his capital. Soon he himself was practically a prisoner in the Spanish camp, and when the citizens rose in revolt Cortes brought out Montezuma in order to pacify them; but an accidental wound from a stone flung from amongst the crowd of his own subjects proved a climax to all the indignities he had suffered. He repeatedly tore the bandages from his wound, and soon after died broken-hearted, June 30, 1520. Some of his children adopted the Christian religion, and his eldest son received from Charles V. the title of Count of Montezuma. One of his descendants was viceroy of Mexico from 1697 to 1701. His last descendant, Don Marsilio de Teruel, Count of Montezuma, was banished from Spain by Ferdinand VII., and afterwards from Mexico, on account of his liberal opinions, and died at New Orleans in 1836. See CORTES.