Hernan Cortez!

Early Life
Cortés was born in Medellín, in the province of Extremadura, in the Kingdom of Castile in Spain in 1485. His father, Martín Cortés de Monroy, born in 1449 son of Rodrigo or Ruy Fernandez de Monroy and wife Maria Cortés, was an infantry captain of distinguished ancestry but slender means. His mother was Catalina Pizarro Altamirano. Through his mother, Hernán was second cousin once removed of Francisco Pizarro, who later conquered the Inca empire of modern-day Peru , through her parents Diego Altamirano and wife and cousin Leonor Sanchez Pizarro Altamirano, first cousin of Pizarro's father. Through his father, Hernán was a twice distant relative of Nicolas de Ovando y Cáceres, the third Governor of Hispaniola. His paternal grandfather was a son of Rodrigo de Monroy y Almaraz, 5th Lord of Monroy, and wife Mencía de Orellana y Carvajal.
Hernán Cortés is described as a pale, sickly child by his biographer, chaplain, and friend Francisco Lopez de Gómara. At the age of 14, Cortés was sent to study at the University of Salamanca. This was Spain's great center of learning, and while accounts vary as to the nature of Cortés' studies, his later writings and actions suggest he studied Law and probably Latin.
After two years, Cortés, tired of schooling, returned home to Medellín, much to the irritation of his parents, who had hoped to see him equipped for a profitable legal career. However, those two years at Salamanca, plus his long period of training and experience as a notary, first in Seville and later in Hispaniola, would give him a close acquaintance with the legal codes of Castile that was to stand him in good stead in justifying his unauthorized conquest of Mexico.
At this point in his life, Cortés was described by Gómara as restless, haughty, and mischievous. This was probably a fair description of a sixteen-year-old boy who had returned home only to find himself frustrated by life in his small provincial town.
By this time, news of the exciting discoveries of Columbus in the New World was streaming back to Spain.

Hernan Cortez’s Arrival!
Cortés did not arrive in the "New World" until he finally succeeded in reaching Hispaniola in a ship commanded by Alonso Quintero, who tried to deceive his superiors and reach the New World before them in order to secure personal advantages. Quintero's mutinous conduct may have served as a model for Cortés in his subsequent career. The history of the conquistadores is rife with accounts of rivalry, jockeying for position, mutiny, and betrayal.

Upon his arrival in 1503 in Santo Domingo, the capital of Hispaniola, the eighteen-year-old Cortés registered as a citizen, which entitled him to a building plot and land for cultivation. Soon afterwards, Ovando, still the governor, gave him a pack of Indians and made him a notary of the town of Azusa. His next five years seem to have served to establish him in the colony; in 1506, Cortés took part in the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba, receiving a large estate of land and Indian slaves for his efforts.

Hernan Cortes Conquest of Mexico!
In 1518 Velázquez put him in command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization. At the last minute, due to the old gripe between Velázquez and Cortés, he changed his mind and revoked his charter. Cortés ignored the orders and went ahead anyway, in February 1519, in an act of open mutiny. He landed with 600 men in the Yucatan Peninsula, in Mayan territory. There, he met Jeronimo de Aguilar, a Spaniard who had survived from a shipwreck and joined the troops. Jeronimo de Aguilar, a Franciscan priest, had learnt Maya during his captivity, and could thus translate for Cortés. In March 1519, Cortés formally claimed the land for the Spanish crown. He then won a battle against the Natives of Tabasco, during which he received from the vanquished twenty young indigenous women, among whom was La Malinche, his future mistress, who knew both the Nahuatl language and Maya, thus enabling Hernán Cortés to communicate in both.
In July 1519, his men took over Veracruz: by this act, Cortés dismissed the authority of the governor of Cuba to place himself directly under the orders of Charles V. Leaving a hundred men in Veracruz, Cortès marched on Tenochtitlan in mid August 1519, along with 600 men, 15 horsemen, 15 cannons, and hundreds of indigenous carriers and warriors. On the way to Tenochtitlan, Cortés made alliances with native American tribes such as the Nahuas of Tlaxcala, the Tlaxcaltec,and the Totonacs of Cempoala. In October 1519, Cortés and his men, accompanied by about 3,000 Tlaxcalteca, marched to Cholula, the second largest city in central Mexico. Cortés, either in a pre-meditated effort to instill fear upon the Aztecs waiting for him at Tenochtitlan or wishing to make an example when he feared native treachery, infamously massacred thousands of unarmed members of the nobility gathered at the central plaza, then partially burning down the city.

By the time he arrived in Tenochtitlan the Spaniards had a large army. On November 8, 1519, they were peacefully received by the Aztec Emperor Montezuma II. The latter deliberately let Cortés enter the heart of the Aztec Empire, hoping to get to know their weaknesses better and to crush them later. He gave lavish gifts in gold to the Spaniards which enticed them to plunder vast amounts of gold. In his letters to Charles V, Cortés claims to have learned at this point that he was considered by the Aztecs to be either an emissary of the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl or Quetzalcoatl himself a belief which has been contested by a few modern historians. But quickly Cortès learned that Spaniards on the coast had been attacked, and decided to take Montezuma into hostage in his own house, requesting him to swear allegiance to Charles V.
Meanwhile, the Governor of Cuba sent another expedition, lead by Pánfilo de Narváez, to oppose Cortès, arriving in Mexico in April 1520 with 1,100 men. Cortès henceforth decided to leave Tenochtitlan to fight Narvaez, whom he overcame despite his numerical inferiority. In Mexico, one of Cortès' lieutenants Pedro de Alvarado, committed a massacre in the Main Temple, triggering a local rebellion. Cortès speedily returned to Mexico and proposed an armistice, attempting to support himself on Montezuma, but the latter was killed by his subjects on July 1, 1520, and Cortès decided to flee for Tlaxcala. During the Noche Triste the Spaniards managed a narrow escape from Tenochtitlan across the causeway, while their back guard was being massacred. Much of the treasure looted by Cortés was lost during this panicked escape from Tenochtitlan. After a battle in Otumba, they managed to reach Tlaxcala, after having lost 870 men. With the assistance of their allies, Cortès' men finally prevailed with reinforcements arriving from Cuba. Cortés began a policy of attrition towards the island city of Tenochtitlan cutting off supplies and subduing the Aztecs' allied cities thus changing the balance, and organizing the siege of Tenochtitlan, destroying the city.
In January 1521, Cortez countered a conspiracy against him, headed by Villafana, who was hanged. Finally, with the capture of Cuauhtémoc, the Tlatoani of Tenochtitlan, on 13 August 1521, the Aztec Empire disappeared. From 1521 to 1524, Cortés personally governed Mexico.

Hernan Cortes Appointment to governorship of Mexico and internal dissensions
Many historical sources have conveyed an impression that Cortés was unjustly treated by the Spanish Crown, and that he received nothing but ingratitude for his role in establishing New Spain. This picture is the one Cortés presents in his letters and in the later biography written by Gomorra. However, there may be more to the picture than this. Cortés' own greed and vanity may have played a part in his deteriorating position with the King
"Cortés personally was not ungenerously rewarded, but he speedily complained of insufficient compensation to himself and his comrades. Thinking himself beyond reach of restraint, he disobeyed many of the orders of the Crown, and, what was more imprudent, said so in a letter to the emperor, dated 15 October 1524 . In this letter Cortés, besides recalling in a rather abrupt manner that the conquest of Mexico was due to him alone, deliberately acknowledges his disobedience in terms which could not fail to create a most unfavorable impression."
King Charles I of Spain, who had become Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1519, appointed Cortés governor and captain general of the newly conquered territory, dubbed "New Spain of the Ocean Sea". But also, much to the dismay of Cortés, four royal officials were appointed at the same time to assist him in his governing in effect submitting him to close observation and administration. Cortés initiated the construction of Mexico City, destroying Aztec temples and buildings and then rebuilding on the Aztec ruins what soon became the most important European city in the Americas. Cortès managed the founding of new cities and appointed men to extend Spanish rule to all of New Spain, imposing the encomienda land tenure system in 1524. He also supported efforts to evangelize the indigenous people to Christianity and sponsored new explorations. He then spent the next seven years establishing peace among the Indians of Mexico and developing mines and farmlands. Cortés was one of the first Spaniards to attempt to grow sugar in Mexico and one of the first to import African slaves to early colonial Mexico. At the time of his death his estate contained at least 200 slaves who were either native Africans or of African descent.
In 1523, the Crown, sent a military force under the command of Juan de Garay to conquer and settle the northern part of Mexico, the region of Pánuco. This was another setback for Cortés who mentions this in his fourth letter to the King in which he describes himself as the victim of a conspiracy by his archenemies Diego Velázquez, Diego Columbus and Bishop Fonseca as well as Juan Garay. The influence of Garay was effectively stopped by this appeal to the King who sent out a decree forbidding Garay to interfere in the politics of New Spain, causing him to give up without a fight.
From 1524 to 1526, Cortès headed an expedition to Honduras where he defeated Cristobel de Olid, who had claimed Honduras as his own under the influence of the Governor of Cuba Diego Velázquez. Fearing that Cuauhtémoc might head an insurrection in Mexico, he brought him with him in Honduras and hanged him during the journey. Raging over Olid's treason, Cortès issued a decree to arrest Velázquez, whom he was sure was behind Olin’s treason. This, however, only served to further estrange the Spanish Crown which was already beginning to feel anxious about Cortés' rising power.


Hernan Cortes First return to Spain (1528)!!!
In 1528, Cortes returned to Spain to appeal to the justice of his master, Charles V. He presented himself with great splendor before the court. By this time Charles V had returned and Cortés forthrightly responded to his enemy's charges. Denying he had held back on gold due the crown, he showed that he had contributed more than the quinto required. Indeed, he had spent lavishly to rebuild Tenochtitlán, damaged during the siege that brought down the Aztec empire.
He was received by Charles with every distinction, and decorated with the order of Santiago. In return for his efforts in expanding the still young Spanish Empire, Cortés was rewarded in 1529 by being named the "Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca" a noble title and senorial estate which was passed down to his descendants until 1811. The Oaxaca Valley was one of the wealthiest region of New Spain, and Cortés had 23 000 vassals. Although confirmed in his land holdings and vassals, he was not reinstated as governor and was never again given any important office in the administration of New Spain. During his travel to Spain, his property was mismanaged by abusive colonial administrators. He sided with local Indians in a lawsuit. The Indians documented the abuses in the Huexotzinco Codex.

Hernan Cortes Returns to Mexico!
Cortés returned to Mexico in 1530 with new titles and honors, but with diminished power, a viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, having been entrusted in 1535 with the administration of civil affairs, although Cortés still retained military authority, with permission to continue his conquests. This division of power led to continual dissension, and caused the failure of several enterprises in which Cortés was engaged.
On returning to Mexico, Cortés found the country in a state of anarchy. At a time when there was a strong suspicion in court circles of an intended rebellion by Cortés, a charge was brought against him that cast a fatal blight upon his character and plans. He was accused of murdering his first wife. The proceedings of the investigation were kept secret. No report, either exonerating or condemning Cortés, was published. Had the Government declared him innocent, it would have greatly increased his popularity; had it declared him a criminal, a crisis would have been precipitated by the accused and his party. Silence was the only safe policy, but that silence is suggestive that grave danger was feared from his influence.
After reasserting his position and reestablishing some sort of order, Cortés retired to his estates at Cuernavaca, about 30 miles south of Mexico City. There he concentrated on the building of his palace and on Pacific exploration. Remaining in Mexico between 1530 and 1541, Cortés quarreled with Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán and disputed the right to explore the territory that is today California with Antonio de Mendoza, the first viceroy. In 1536, Cortés explored the northwestern part of Mexico and discovered the Baja California peninsula. Cortés also spent time exploring the Pacific coast of Mexico. The Gulf of California was originally named the Sea of Cortes by its discoverer Francisco de Ulloa in 1539. This was the last major expedition by Cortez.

(we kinda left this out,so RANDOM TIME!)
Cortez`s Fleet
The emperor finally permitted Cortés to join himself and his fleet commanded by Andrea Doria at the great expedition against Algiers in the Barbary Coast in 1541, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire and was used as a base by the famous Turkish corsair Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha who was also the Admiral in Chief of the Ottoman Fleet. During this unfortunate campaign, which was Cortes`s last, Cortés was almost drowned in a storm that hit his fleet while he was pursuing Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha, who managed to defeat the fleet of Charles V for a second time after the 1538 Battle of Preveza.

Hernan had 13 children.
Their names were:
*don Martín Cortés, son of doña Marina (La Malinche), called the First Mestizo; about him was written The New World of Martín Cortés; married doña Bernaldina de Porras and had two children:

*doña Ana Cortés
*don Fernando Cortés, Principal Judge of Veracruz. Descendants of this line are alive today in Mexico.
*don Luis, son of doña Antonia Hermosillo
*doña Catalina Pizarro, daughter of his relative doña Leonor Pizarro
*doña Leonor, daughter of doña Isabel de Moctezuma, the oldest legitimate daughter of Moctezuma II Xocoyotzin
*doña María Cortés de Moctezuma, married to don Juan de Tolosa, a miner, daughter of Mexica (Aztec) princess Tecuichpotzin Xocoyotzin, born in Tenochtitlan on July 11, 1510 and died on July 9, 1550, daughter of Moctezuma II Xocoyotzin and wife doña María Miahuaxuchitl
*He married twice: firstly in Cuba to Catalina Juárez Marcaida, who died at Coyoacán in 1522, without issue, and secondly in 1529 to doña Juana Ramírez de Arellano de Zúñiga, daughter of don Carlos Ramírez de Arellano, 2nd Count of Aguilar and wife the Countess doña Juana de Zúñiga, and had:

*don Luis Cortés y Ramírez de Arellano, who died a child in Texcoco in 1530
*doña Catalina Cortés de Zúñiga, who died a short time after birth in 1531
*don Martín Cortés y Ramírez de Arellano, 2nd 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
*doña María Cortés de Zúñiga, born between 1533 and 1536, married to don Luis de Quiñones y Pimentel, 5th Count of Luna
*doña Catalina Cortés de Zúñiga, born between 1533 and 1536, died unmarried in Sevilla after the funeral of her father
*doña Juana Cortés de Zúñiga, born 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.

Last Years!
Having spent a great deal of his own money to finance expeditions, he was now heavily in debt. In February 1544 he made a claim on the royal treasury, but was given a royal runaround for the next three years. Disgusted, he decided to return to Mexico in 1547. When he reached Seville, he was stricken with dysentery. He died in a Seville province, on December 2, 1547, from a case of pleurisy at age 62.

Like Columbus, he died a wealthy but embittered man. He left his many mestizo and white children well cared for in his will, along with every one of their mothers. He requested in his will that his remains eventually be buried in Mexico. Before he died he had the Pope remove the "natural" status of three of his children, including Martin, said to be his favorite.




SO Basically Cortez was an explorer and found many different ways to routes for exploration,and had ALOT of kids.