page_title: Isabel Moctezuma
section_title: Death and inheritance
hierarchical_section_title: Isabel Moctezuma / Biography / Death and inheritance
caption_attribution_description: English: Genealogy of Tecuichpoch (Isabel Moctezuma) Deutsch: Genealogie von Tecuichpoch (Isabel Moctezuma)
context_page_description: Doña Isabel Moctezuma was a daughter of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II. She was the consort of the Aztec emperors Atlixcatzin, Cuitláhuac, and Cuauhtémoc and as such the last Aztec empress. After the Spanish conquest, Doña Isabel was recognized as Moctezuma's legitimate heir, and became one of the indigenous Mexicans granted an encomienda. Among the others were her half-sister Marina Moctezuma, and Juan Sánchez, an Indian governor in Oaxaca.
  Doña Isabel was married to three Aztec emperors and three Spaniards and widowed five times. She had a daughter out of wedlock, Leonor Cortés Moctezuma, with conquistador Hernán Cortés. Her sons founded a line of Spanish nobility. The title of Duke of Moctezuma de Tultengo still exists.
context_section_description: Doña Isabel died in 1550 or 1551. Her estate was large, consisting not only of the encomienda, but also personal possessions she had acquired during her marriages with the Spaniards.  Previous to those marriages, she had been an Aztec princess who owned nothing except her distinguished name.  Her will is one of the few existing indicators of her personality.  She directed that her Indian slaves be set free, one-fifth of the estate be given to the Catholic Church, and that all her outstanding debts, including wages owed to servants, be paid.  She had acquired jewelry and other luxury items and requested that many of these be given to her daughters, and that other property be sold and one-third of the proceeds go to her daughters.  As a deathbed wish, 20 percent of her estate was to be given to Leonor, her out-of-wedlock child by Cortés.  This was apparently a dowry, as Leonor was married, or soon to be married, to Juan de Tolosa in Zacatecas.
  Isabel willed the majority of her encomienda to her eldest son, Juan de Andrade, but his inheritance of her encomienda was disputed by her widower, Juan Cano, and Diego Arias de Sotelo, son-in-law of Leonor (Mariana) Moctezuma, whom he claimed was Moctezuma's true heir.  The result after years of litigation was that Arias de Sotelo's claim was dismissed, and Tacuba was divided between Cano and Andrade.
caption: Genealogy of Tecuichpoch
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