Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve episode two hundred and forty one, Lace
Triste. Last week, Cortes finally got down to business with Montezuma. It
seems his claim of taking the Mexican emperor dead or alive was not a bluff
after all, Risking everything on one throw of the dice, Cortez managed to
take Montezuma captive in his own city. Then, just when everything seemed to
be going according to plan, Navarez showed up with orders to bring Cortes to
heal or bring back his head. Now firmly believing the old adage that fortune
favors the brave, Cortez made straight for his nemesis and crushed him with the
now one eyed Navarez effectively neutralized, Cortes could breathe a sigh of relief.
Said sigh was a short one. Within days, perhaps hours, of crushing
Navares, Cortes received word that there was a crisis back in Technos Declan,
So with another shake of the head, Cortes turned his back to the ocean
and prepared to make the long march back to the Mexica capital. Cortes's initial
departure for the coast caused a lot of anxiety in Technos Declan amongst the Mexica.
Questions were flowing like water. Where had he gone? Was he dead?
Who were these people he had to go and fight? Would he return
quickly? Technosh Declan became a powder keg, and all it needed was a
spark. That spark came during the celebration of the Feast of Towakl. During
earlier generations, this was nothing more than yet another important reign festival. The
climax of the festival was a sacrifice of a young man personifying the god texicapatle
the man in question would have been selected for this role of the year prior
at the end of the last piece of Towakl. Since then he would have
lived almost like a god for a year before his life was brought abruptly to
an end. Now, before Cortez left, Montezuma expressly requested permission to hold
this festival, and Cortez had given it. Then several days before the festival
was set to go, Montezuma again asked for permission. This time he asked
the man Cortez left in charge, Pedro de Alvarado. Alvarado gave him permission
everything was set, and then Alvarado began to have his doubts. During the
last days before the festival, the to Los Gwans began feeding the Europeans all
sorts of horror stories about the festival. This was when the Mexico would turn
on them, they said, this was when they would all be sacrificed.
Now, no doubt there was some justification for this position amongst the clock Scolins.
Their people had been the sacrificial victims for many Mexican festivals for decades.
These fears seemed substantiated when the Mexica suddenly stopped providing the Europeans with food.
Then the girl who did the Europeans washing was found hanged. To top it
off, one conquistador allegedly saw the Mexica preparing pots, pans and axes and
proclaiming loudly how they were going to cook and eat the Europeans. Hence,
the mood and Technostklon on the eve of the fiesta was anxious to the extreme.
Yet I think it's worth noting that there is absolutely no evidence of any
plot to murder the European The fact remains that with Montezuma imprisoned, it was
difficult, if not impossible, to mount any opposition to the European presence without
the emperor to do so. There was no one to take initiative. The
Mexican political system utterly depended on the emperor, so the first few days of
the fiesta passed without incident. Then the date of the sacrifice arrived. Now
this was a different sort of sacrifice because the victim had to appear at least
kind of willing now doubtless, over the years, many young men were plied
with mushrooms and other hallucinogens before being guided to the canoe. The victim was
rowed across the lake to the island which housed the temple. Then they had
to walk willingly up the temple step, turn face the lake, and finally
break a ceremonial flute. The sacrifice followed. Then the new flutes of the
God would be heard all over the city, and that was the cue for
the dancing to begin. Said dancing was to occur in the square before the
Great Temple in fifteen twenty. Historians believe this all occurred on May sixth.
When the dancing began, the whole population entered a sort of trance. One
song followed another with everyone assembled quote rising in waves end quote in the words
of one European present. In all probability, there were around four hundred dancers.
Now, certainly the Mexicans would have noticed when Albarado in his and in
full armor bearing swords, arrived at the courtyard, but they did nothing.
After all, they had permission for this festival, so what were they to
be afraid of. Then Alvarado divided his company. Many were European, but
certainly there would have been some Klakskallan allies present as well. Ten Europeans each
were set to guard all four of the exits from the courtyard. Everything was
set now from the outset. In cases not obvious, I want to note
that this was absolutely premeditated. Alvarado left sixty men back with Montezuma and the
nobility present in the temple. Those men had instructions to kill all the nobility
around Montezuma, but leave the emperor alive. Alvarado with the balance of his
men, with a pure intent of murdering all the nobility taking part in the
ceremonial dancing. This was as cold blooded and meticulously planned as anything, sayesare
Borgia ever did. When the gates to the temple were closed, Alvarado gave
the famous order quote let them die as men fell upon the dancers and began
dispatching them with ruthless efficiency. After killing the dancers, the Europeans fell upon
the spectators. None of them had so much as seen steel swords in action
before. None of them were armed. The fighting soon became general in the
streets around the temple. Before long, the war drums from atop the various
temples began to pound. It was a general call to arms. All males
were summoned to the armory. Some Mexican leaders emerged willing and able to launch
a counterattack. Montezuma or no Montezuma. Alvarado had just sparked a full scale
rebellion, and for no reason. So why why did he do it?
Why did he launched this attack? Well, we don't know. We don't
have a precise answer to that question. As I'll get to later. We
know what he told Cortez when Cortez returned, that he thought he was about
to be attacked, and it was sort of a preemptive strike. And that's
probably the only thing that makes any semblance of sense in this situation. Otherwise,
with the Mexica emperor in tow Alvarado had absolutely no reason to risk everything
as Cortez had done. The other question is what did Alvarado know of anything
as to what was going on in the coast. There's some speculation that perhaps
the lack of communication back from Cortez may have led Alvarado to believe that Cortez
had been defeated and the time had come to simply slaughter who he could,
get the gold he could and get out of dodge. But these are all
speculations. We really don't know, because he didn't leave us any sort of
diary as to why Alvarado chose to slaughter all of the Mexica taking part in
a religious festival that he himself had given permission for now. Once Alvarado and
his gore covered compatriots got back to their quarters, they found their counterparts had
done their jobs as well. All the key nobles except Montezuma, lay dead,
their blood dripping from Spanish blades. Alvarado, lightly wounded and covered in
blood, most of it not his, had the temerity to walk up to
Montezuma and say, quote, see what your people have done to me,
Montezuma replied Alvarado, if you had not begun it, my men would not
have done this. You have ruined yourselves and me. Also, he was
right outside. The Mexican warriors pressed against the walls of the palace. Some
tried to climb over the palisade, others attempted to set fire to the wooden
door. The clock's collins showed their loyalty to the Spanish allies by quote,
dampening their own cloaks and placing them over the flames end quote. The Europeans
still had a technological apantage of weaponry, but now the Mexican numbers were just
too great. Despite their best efforts, the cannons and crossbows simply could not
hold back the tidal wave of Mexican warriors. Sensing he needed to do something,
Alvarado strode back to Montezuma. He put a dagger to the Emperor's chest
and demanded that he go to the roof and order his people to stop the
assault. Montezuma did as he was told. From the rooftop, Montezuma shouted
down to the throngs below, beseeching them to stop. In his words,
a senseless attack. At first, the speech seemed to work. The battle
did die down, But for some Mexicans this was the last straw. Their
people had just been killed in cold blood. How could their emperor possibly demand
they stopped trying to seek justice. Many Mexicans were reluctant to stop fighting.
This seemed like their best chance to get rid of the Europeans once and for
all. Some sporadic fighting continued for a few days, but no alternative leader
arose. No one at least who was capable of replacing Montezuma one of his
brothers. No one was willing to do so at this point. That being
said, Montezuma never recovered his authority. After this, Alvarado had effectively cut
off the flower of the Mexican nobility. Sure, but whatever his goal,
approved apyiric victory. To say the least, the feast of Tolochsil was over.
Somewhere the Mexican gods were listening. It was the end of May fifteen
twenty, and the reins began. Cortes hurried back from better cruise to Tenochticlan
as quickly as he was able. Luckily, his force was strengthened somewhat by
the addition of men, horses, and good equipment from Navarez's army. As
he marched, he sent out messages to all his auxiliary captains to bring their
men back to Tlexcala. Men who had been out looking for gold mines rushed
back to aid their captain. Cortez arrived at Tlaxcala weary and exhausted. Several
of his men were close to death from hunger or thirst. Eventually Cortez reached
the Great Lake in the Valley of Mexico. On the way, everyone was
struck by the complete absence of spies or observers. Cortez fully expected to meet
a Mexican army on the road, but there was no sign of it.
Having reached the valley, the expedition stopped for night at Texcoco. There Cortez
got some word from tenosht Clan it wasn't actually bad news. Montezuma sent a
messenger to Cortes begging for his forgiveness. He said the incident grieved him as
much as he believed it must. Cortez, he said he was in no
way responsible, was all Alvarado's fault, which of course was true. Montezuma
hoped that Cortes could return to the city and they could all go on as
before. Of course, that's not possible, because that isn't how life works
in general, But Montezuma was trying his level best to live in a fantasy
realm. At this point. Cortes then took his expedition to the north side
of the lake. He wanted to make sure he used the shortest causeway to
enter the city to limit the chances for shenanigans. On the morning of June
twenty fourth, fifteen twenty, Cortes and his cavalcade rode into the capital.
When they reached the first homes, Cortes found himself greeted by something almost worse
than taunts and jeers, complete silence. The population had hidden itself quote.
The Mexico decided thereafter that they would not be seen, but would hide.
They would speak no more, but only spy out of entrances, openings in
walls and holes with which they had pierced the walls. Now Alvarado and his
men, well, they were ecstatic to see Cortez. They had nearly starved
and were in no position to resist a new attack. Cortes then looked at
Alvarado, who had some serious explaining to do. Alvarado told him that,
yes, he had attacked the Mexico during the festival, but he had no
choice. You see, according to him, the Mexico were furious that Cortes,
just before he left the city, had put up an image of the
Virgin Mary in the Great Temple. Alvarado found out that the Mexican nobles were
planning on tearing down the idol and then murdering the Europeans within the city.
Alvarado, therefore had launched a premium of attack. Now all this was a
lie, but Alvarado was doing the best he could to save his own skin.
Whether Cortez believed him or not, we cannot say, but he did
tell Alvarado that the attack had been a mistake. Regardless, Montezuma also greeted
Cortez upon his return. Certainly, Montezuma hoped that Cortez could set the situation
right, but Cortez refused to see him. Cortes might have been angry with
him, but certainly the real source of his anger was the fact that his
well laid plans were ruined. Cortez had hoped to pacify Tenoshti Klan from within
and hand over a new crown jewel to Charles the Fifth without firing a shot.
Now that could not be and Cortes knew it. Sure he had new
men and weapons from Nevadez, but the reality was his situation was worse than
it had been in June of fifteen nineteen. Cortes realized he had to take
this one step at a time. First things first, he had to get
access to food, which meant he needed the markets opened up through Marina.
Cortes demanded that Montezuma order the markets reopened. Montezuma said he could not.
He said the best thing to be done was to send one of the lords
still with him to open the markets. Desperate, Cortes agreed and told Montezuma
to pick someone. Montezuma picked Clicklauac, his brother. Cortes agreed. Whether
there were some tacit understanding between Montezuma and Cliklauac, we may never know,
but the moment Cliklouac was out of the palace and beyond Cortes's reach, he
began organizing a resistance to the Europeans. Whether or not he was elected Emperor
right now in his brother's stead is something historians still argue about, but regardless,
Clipklawak was now the face of the resistance. The very day that clip
Klawac was free, the twenty fifth of June, a European soldier was ordered
to escort certain Indian prisoners to the coast, but the Mexica fell on this
little expedition, seized all of the Indians and wounded Europeans. Had he not,
in fact, just abandoned the Indians, he probably would have been captured
and sacrificed. But he was able to escape. That very same day,
Cortes sent another messenger trying to reach Vera Cruz, but after half an hour
the messenger returned. He had not gotten through. He had been attacked,
beaten, and wounded all the Mexicans in the city. He said, we're
preparing for war. Cortes's earliest nightmare on his first visit to Tenoshti Klan,
was being realized he was surrounded. Cortes next sent out one of his best
lieutenants with a force of some three hundred men and a few horses. Their
job was to try to calm down the situation without fighting. This man hadn't
got far along the street leading to the causeway before he too was attacked by
Mexicans throwing stones from the rooftops. Four five Europeans were killed, and nearly
all the rest, including the lieutenant, were hurt. Mexica followed him all
the way back to the palace, where Cortes was holed up, hurling stones
and shooting arrows. They again set fire to the building, and the smoke
and heat presented a serious difficulty until the earth or parts of the roof and
the walls were thrown on the flames. At the same time a breach in
the wall was made. The Mexica could have entered this had not been for
the crossbowmen and the arquebuss posted there. Those who later talked to one of
the Mendicant Friars along with testified to the effectiveness of the crossbowmen. Quote they
sighted well along the iron bolts, which seemed to fly, whirling and humming.
Great was their whirling, Not purposeless did the arrow fly, and the
arrows, too were well aimed end quote. More than eighty of Cortes's men
were wounded. These battles lasted several days. The only variation being that,
the Europeans started going out every dawn in order to try and secure the nearby
houses, but this did very little, since when they returned at night to
the palace, usually with many people wounded or one or two maybe dead,
the Mexica would simply recover the buildings. The conquistadors began to feel besieged by
water. Unfortunately, drinking water was short, since the Spaniards had nothing to
drink except what they obtained from the fetid and salty improvised well which they had
dug in the main patio. Stones were constantly thrown into the European quarters from
nearby roofs. The conquisators in fact had to walk along the edges of the
courtyard to avoid being struck. Possession of cannon no longer made much of a
difference, even though every cannon shot probably killed ten or even twenty Mexicans,
the gaps were just immediately filled. Superior technology simply did not count for much
in the street hand to hand fighting. The Mexica also used psychological warfare,
using a variety of tricks. Each night, the Europeans would look out their
windows to see any number of terrifying things from human heads, jumping to decapitated
corpses groaning and rolling around to burst out. Cortez first conceived of a sort
of medieval tank. It was a square, wooden machine which would shelter twenty
five men, including some crossbowmen. The idea was not to try to escape
the city, but to find a way for men to move freely up and
down the streets to get food. But before these fine contraptions were put into
use, something disastrous happened. Cortes went to Montezuma and again he asked him
to go out and try to calm his people down. At first Montezuma refused,
but Cortes pressed the issue and ultimately Montezuma agreed. Opinions differ about what
happened next. According to most accepted reports, one of Cortez's lieutenants took Montezuma
to the roof. They are two Europeans, maybe others tried to guard the
emperor from the onslaught of stones by holding shields over him. Montezuma then either
planned to make or maybe made some kind of appeal to the Mexican citizens.
According to some observators, there was a moment of silence among the Mexica at
the sight of Montezuma. As he called down to his friends and cousins,
he probably tried to say again that he had come to live with the conquistadors
on his own initiative, and that he could return to his own palace whenever
he wished. There was therefore no reason for war the Europeans. He even
told the crowd had promised to leave the city now. Some sources say that
the Mexicans down below made a rather lewed and spirited reply. For example,
one say, quote, what is that which is being said by that scoundrel
of a Montezuma, horror of the Spaniards? Does he think he can call
to us with his woman like soul to fight for the empire which he has
abandoned out of fright? We do not want to obey him, because already
is no longer our monarch, and indeed we must give him the punishment which
we give to a wicked man end quote. And so Montezuma's attempt at a
speech was met with a shower of stones from his people, both below and
unopposing rooftops. The emperor was struck several times and ultimately fell to his knees.
Cortes's men quickly picked him up and ushered him inside, but the damage
was done. The next day, Cortes attempted to use his tank like machines
to break out of the palace, but it didn't work. The hail of
stones the conquistador's face was too great. Cortes and his entourage spent the rest
of the day hauling the cannons and other munitions back to the base. Frostrated,
Cortes sallied forth that evening and set fire to a number of local houses.
The Mexica, as a rule, didn't fight at night, and Cortes
knew this, so in the evenings he could attack with relative impunity. The
next day, Cortes planned to attack the Temple of Yopico. The Mexica had
been using the temple as a veritable fortress. Its height made it a convenient
place from which to fling stones down upon the Europeans. The Europeans set out
for this monument with their siege engines now repaired. Cortez and his reports that
he only had a handful of men, but he probably had at least forty.
Along the way, they fought numerous short engagements with the Mexica throwing stones
from the top stories of nearby houses. The Europeans nevertheless reached the foot of
the pyramid, by which time their siege engines had been batrickally destroyed, though
the Conquista doors were able to get as far as they did, most likely
because of them. Cortes then ordered the temple surrounded and stormed. There followed
a prolonged battle on the steps. The crossbowmen, the arquebussers, and then
the infantry, with their swords, generally were able to move up. There
were a lot of Mexican warriors there, some with long pikes with points as
sharp but Cortes as those of any lances back in Europe. He and his
men, at some cost in men killed and wounded, made their way upwards.
There were several setbacks. Cortes, from his own account, at least
fought ceaselessly, even though a wound from the previous day had prevented him using
his left hand. It seems that he actually narrowly escaped on two occasions,
being thrown from the top of the pyramid by several Mexican warriors. At the
top of the temple, the Conquistadors first threw down the Mexican idols. They
then also took two high priests prisoner in the hopes that they might be able
to use them as negotiators to bring an end to the conflict. At this
point, there seems to have been several discussions about the possibility of peace between
the Mexicans and Europeans. These fell apart after the Mexican envoys reminded Cortez that
even if the Mexica lost twenty five thousand people for every one conquistador, he
would still run out of men first, so the fighting continued. On the
morning of June thirtieth, fifteen twenty, Montezuma, former emperor of Old Mexico,
died. There's an old story that Montezuma insisted he'd be baptized before he
passed. This is certainly false. Cortes never mentions it, and had Montezuma
made such protestations, it is inconceivable that Cortes would not have brought them up.
There's probably much more to the rumor that Cortez had Montezuma killed. This
one might be true, though I cannot confirm it. The reality was Montezuma
had clearly lost any usefulness to Cortez by keeping him alive. All Cortez was
doing was requiring himself to spend precious manpower guarding him in his close relatives.
Given that Cortes had all the nobles whom had been with Montezuma put to death
at this time, there's a strong possibility Montezuma did not die from his wounds.
Frankly, there's more than probable that Cortez sort of helped him along.
Montezuma was a tragic figure early in his life. He's sort of the quintessential
of Mexican emperor, an inflexible man who made a virtue out of being inflexible.
He lost power by just really an unprecedented and unforeseeable act is kidnapping in
November fifteen nineteen. There's no way that he could have realized at the time
the implications going with Cortez and the other Spaniards had, but that converted him
into a passive instrument, and as often happens in these circumstances, he seems
to have become enamored of his captors, especially Cortez. This affection made him
seem as a coward to his own people. Whether Montezuma actually believed Cortez was
a god is something that will probably never know. What we can say was
that even for the people that he came from, he was exceptionally religious and
superstitious, so it's possible. In fact, he certainly seems, at least
for a time, to have toyed with the idea of identifying Cortes with this
lost lord who vanished to the east, probably Quexicoatal. In terms of his
submission, he probably did make some kind of concession, most likely as an
act of temporary appeasement to Cortes's demand for him and his lords to accept the
supreme authority of Charles the Fifth. Not that he had any idea who that
was no doubt. He also believed what he had given away under Durest could
just be gone back on the moment that the occasion demanded in March fifteen twenty,
at the time when he requested Cortes leave the country some of his courage
should come back. In the end, after Alvarado's massacre, he could see
that no further negotiation was possible for him. It was rejected by his own
people, and he had to resign himself to being no more than a puppet
for the invaders. It was a sad way for a once proud man to
end his life. There was now a growing feeling amongst the Europeans that by
hook or by crook, they had to get out of Technoshti Klan. They
had very little gunpowder left, plus, of the nearly one thousand plus Glands
who had gone with Cortes to the capital, less than one hundred remained.
Cortez decided to leave the very night Montezuma died June thirtieth. Several captains had
already floated the idea, but they should escape by night, given the Mexican
refusal to fight in the dark. The thing that held the Conquistador's back,
at least at first, was the treasure. How are they going to get
the treasure out? In the end, they decided to place the King's fifth
on a mare, while everyone else was allowed to take whatever they could and
whatever they wanted. The smelter of the expedition later told officials that the Europeans
took one thirty four thousand pesos worth of gold. Cortes later said he took
seventy five thousand of his own. The Conquistador's retreat began quietly at midnight on
the first of July fifteen twenty in a mist or light rain, with no
one speaking. One captain carried a portable wooden bridge made of beams and planks,
which was placed over the causeway to allow them to exit. It was
laid across the first gaps in the causeway on the edge of the city.
Most of the exhibition had crossed the first four bridges, all those within the
confines of the city, and were about to begin to cross the lake when
a woman going out to get water saw them. This woman allegedly called out,
quote, Mexica, come quickly, our enemies are leaving now that it
is night. They're running away as fugitives. In reply, a few minutes
later, a man, probably a priest, shouted from a nearby temple,
quote, Mexican chiefs, your enemies are leaving. Run to your canoes of
war and quote. None of the Mexicans seemed to have thought the conquistadors would
try to leave by night, But now the drum of war on the top
of the Great Pyramid was sounded. The male population of Technoshtkon, roused from
sleep, ran to take their canoes to the main waterway. Quote. The
canoes of war sped like arrows, the paddlers paddling fast and placing themselves in
order. Quote. They fired so many arrows it was as if, according
to one conquisador quote, a lobster had reached its breeding ground end quote.
The Mexica were organized against the Europeans in the confusion of a night attack,
and perhaps in their anger, they seemed to have ignored the ancient tactic of
seeking to capture, not kill. This time they were out for blood.
All the sources indicate that though some Europeans were captured, many Europeans were simply
killed in the fighting, usually by being hit on the back of the head,
the same way interestingly that criminals were killed in Mexican society. Despite these
attacks, the vanguard of the European column, as well as Cortes and his
companions in the second section of the retreat, managed to reach the mainland.
Paul had to swim across the last two channels which had been opened up in
the causeway. The entire causeway at that point was under attack by too many
canoes to count. All the bridges were up, all the escape planks were
broken, half the European force was floundering in the water. It was a
complete disaster. The cannon, many of the horses, and nearly all the
gold was lost. The mayor bearing the royal fifth disappeared, never to be
seen again. The main disaster occurred at a point called the Toltec Canal quote
the bridge of the massacre end quote as it was later described by a Franciscan,
this was the second cut in the causeway after leaving the city. The
only way at the moment to get over was to actually staunch the causeway with
the bodies of the dead, which were able to fill the The Europeans there
quote horses, some women dropped there. The canal was completely filled with them,
and those who came last crossed over only on men, only on bodies
quote horse and circumstances like this, things like horses, crossbows, cannons were
useless. In classic just desserts fashion, those who carried most heavy gold items
were the first to drown. Those who went in cotton armor only by and
large survived. Hence those who died were killed more by their greed than anything
else. Cortes and most of his captains fought bravely, but pointlessly. At
one point, Cortes fell into the water, and Mexica swarmed, each desperate
to get the main prize for sacrifice, but Cortez was saved by one of
whose lieutenant. At the last moment, in the darkness and confusion, Alvarado
completely lost control over the vanguard. When Cortez finally saw him again, he
asked Alvarado, where are the people with whom I left you? Alvarado replied,
signor all of them are here, and if some are not, forget
them. His fellow rearguard commander Velasquez de Leon, was never seen again.
Some of those in the rearguard did manage to reach land, but several decided
they wouldn't be able to make it, so they turned around and retreated to
their old quarters. There they held out for a day or two before capitulating.
About two hundred and seventy Europeans hadn't even been told they were supposed to
evacuate, and they never left their quarters in the first place. They too,
capitulated, All were sacrificed. Total numbers lost vary depending on who you
ask. The most reliable estimate is around six hundred Europeans, about half the
total expedition. Cortez was crushed. Forever after that night would be referred to
in Spanish lore as la Noche triste, or the Knight of sadness across the
Atlantic. No one knew about the disaster. They would not for months.
There the scene was a bit different At that very moment. Midsummer fifteen twenty
a magnificent tapestry depicting the wheel of Fortune in a series of honors was begin
woven in Brussels to commemorate the forthcoming coronation of Emperor Charles the fifth. The
goddess Fortune Eyes, blindfolded, rides across the heavens on a charger, scattering
roses with her right hand and throwing stones with her left. Below her is
her famous wheel, propelled by a servant above or the attributes of empire crown,
sword, scepter to her. That is. Among the fortunate are Julius
Caesar, the popular hero of the day, being depicted rowing to shore.
He is dressed oddly and maybe ironically, as Cortez would have been dressed when
he is praying. If you enjoyed the episode, there's a lot more content
on the website. Got the link in the show notes also links below to
teaching materials, as well as add free versions of the show and a link
to Western Sieve two point zero, the reboot that's really starting to take off
now. If you're interested, check those out otherwise. Next week, Cortez
tries to pick up the pieces