Teotlalco – The first Empress to Emperor Moctezuma II of the Aztec Empire

Teotlalco was one of the two Empresses to Emperor Moctezuma II of the Aztec Empire. She was an Aztec princess. While very little information is known about her, it is clear that she was the most powerful woman in the Aztec Empire. She was the only person who could personally contact Emperor Moctezuma II. Even though she was very powerful, Empress Teotlalco suffered a tragic fate at the hands of the Spanish conquistadors during The Night of Sorrows on 1 July 1520.

Empress Teotlalco’s origins are mostly unknown. Some accounts claimed that she was the daughter of the King of Tlacopan.^[1] Historian Camilla Townsend claimed that she was the daughter of Emperor Ahuitzol of the Aztec Empire and that her mother was from Tepanec.^[2] Historian David Chipman claimed that Empress Teotlalco was a princess from Ecatepec, and her father was King Matlaccohuatl.^[3] Teotlalco was not her real name.^[4] Instead, it meant that she was a princess.^[5] Despite Empress Teotlalco’s unknown origins, it is clear that she was a princess from an Aztec royal family.

Princess Teotlalco married Emperor Moctezuma II (the Aztec Emperor who would meet the famous Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortez). She became the Empress of the Aztec Empire alongside Emperor Moctezuma’s other Empress, Tlapalizquixochtzin.^[6] Because Tlapalizquixochtzin was the queen regnant of Ecatepec, Empress Teotlalco was mostly involved in the affairs of the Aztec Empire.^[7] She was the most powerful woman in the Aztec Empire.^[8] She was the only person in the entire Aztec court that had personal contact with Emperor Moctezuma II.^[9] She also served as a public figure to the Tenochtitlan people.^[10] Thus, Tlapalizquixochtzin reigned over a city-state, but Empress Teotlalco ran the empire with Emperor Moctezuma II.^[11]

In circa 1509, Empress Teotlalco gave birth to her first-born child, Doña Isabel Moctezuma.^[12] Empress Teotlalco then went on to bear Emperor Moctezuma an unknown number of legitimate sons.^[13] However, Empress Teotlalco and her sons perished during Hernan Cortes’s retreat on Tenochtitlan on 1 July 1520.^[14] On 1 July 1520, Empress Teotlalco and her sons drowned in the Lake of Texcoco.^[15] Thus, Empress Teotlalco’s only surviving child was Doña Isabel Moctezuma.^[16] She would become the last Aztec Empress and would transition successfully into the Spanish nobility.^[17]

Empress Teotlalco was the person who had the most contact with Emperor Moctezuma II. Empress Teotlalco was his political partner and was in charge of the affairs of the Aztec Empire. However, Empress Teotlalco suffered under the hands of Hernan Cortes, the Spanish conquistador. Thus, Empress Teotlalco and her sons perished during The Night of Sorrows. Yet, it is through her daughter, Doña Isabel Moctezuma, that her bloodline still survives to this day. Through Doña Isabel Moctezuma, Empress Teotlalco’s and Emperor Moctezuma II’s names will continue to live on and never be forgotten.

Sources:

Cabanillas, N. (n.d.). The Court of God-King Moctezuma II (PDF). GatorMUN XVII. Retrieved on January 2, 2023 from http://www.gatormun.org/uploads/5/1/3/4/51342171/aztecbgg.pdf.

Chipman, D. E. (2010). Moctezuma’s Children: Aztec Royalty Under Spanish Rule, 1520–1700. (n.p.): University of Texas Press.

Townsend, C. (2019). Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs. United States: Oxford University Press.

Spanish-American Genealogist Issues 23-46. (1977). United States: Hartwell Company.

Struggle and Survival in Colonial America. (1981). (D. G. Sweet, Ed.; G. B. Nash, Ed.). United Kingdom: University of California Press.