CORTÉS, HERNÁN. - Born in Medellín in 1485, died in Seville on 2 Dec. 1547. Ambitious and eager for glory and adventure, in 1504 he was in Santo Domingo, and in 1511 in Cuba. In 1519 he commanded the expedition to conquer the Aztec kingdom. He entered the city of Mexico on 8 Nov. 1519. Severe reprisals against the rebellious Indians were carried out by Alvarado, whom Cortés had left as his lieutenant in Mexico. Cortés was only able to prevail because the Indians of Tlaxcala remained loyal to him (1520). In 1521 he succeeded in capturing King Guatimozin. Charles V appointed him Captain General of New Spain on 5 Oct. 1522. His subsequent attempt to expand the conquest of Central America failed. A man of culture (he had studied law in Salamanca) and deeply religious (he promoted the Franciscan missions in Mexico), he is one of the most complex figures in the history of Spanish expansion.
CORTÈS, HERNÁN
BIBL.: E. Pardo Bazán, H. C. y sus hazañas, Madrid 1914; J. Babelon, La vie de Fernand C., Paris 1928; M. Solana y Gutiérrez, Ensayo biológico sobre H. C., Oaxaca 1933; id., D. H. C. Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca, México 1938; R. S. Chamberlain, Two unpublished documents of H. C. and New Spain, in The Hispanic American Historical Review, 18 (1938), pp. 514-25; S. de Madariaga, H. C., Buenos Aires 1941; L. Torres, H. C. conquistador de Méjico, 2nd ed., Madrid 1942; H. R. Wagner, The rise of Fernando C., Berkeley 1944; cf. also E. Sánchez Alonso, Fuentes de la Historia Española e Hispano-Americana, 2nd ed., Madrid 1927, with complete bibliography. Massimo Petrocchi