30 May 2025 / 10 House
Article suitable for older students
Find out moreWho was Prime Minister at the Conquest?
Cihuacoatl, Aztec Prime Minister, Tlacaelel
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Pedro Pineda: Can you tell me, who was Cihuacoatl at the court of Moctezuma at time Cortes arrived in Mexico? I’ve been looking for his name but unfortunately without success. (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
According to Professor Manuel Aguilar-Moreno (who’s on our Panel of Experts) it was Tlacaeleltzin Xocoyotl, the son of a nobleman in Tenochtitlan, who took over this office in 1503, following the death of the previous Cihuacóatl, Tlilpotoncatzin. Tlacaeleltzin Xocoyotl died in 1520, a year after Cortés’s forces arrived in 1519.
You can learn more about the role of Cihuacóatl by following the link below.
Picture:-
Illustration of a portrait of Cihuacóatl Tlacelel (the most famous to hold this office) by María Ramos after León-Portilla, scanned from our information source -
Handbook to Life in the Aztec World by Manuel Aguilar-Moreno, Facts on File, New York, 2006, p. 87.
Comments (2)
Tecpatzin
27th Dec 2019
I thought a man called Tlacotzin was Cihuacoatl at the time of the conquest and that he died of disease in 1526. So he had only been Cihuacoatl for 6 years?
Mexicolore
Professor Aguilar-Moreno states that on the death of Tlacaeleltzin Xocoyotl in 1520, the fourth Cihuacóatl of Tenochtitlan became Matlatzincatzin, ‘who was installed along with Cuitlahuac as the 10th tlatoani. The last cihuacoatl to hold office was Tlacotzin in 1524, who was baptised with the new name of Don Juan Velázquez Tlacotzin after the Spanish conquest.’ So if you’re right that Tlacotzin died in 1526, he only held the title of Cihuacóatl for just two years...
Pedro Pineda
2nd Aug 2010
Thank you very much for the answer about the Aztec Prime Minister at the time of the spanish Conquest.
Best regards.
Cihuacoatl, Aztec Prime Minister, Tlacaelel
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