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Fernando Cortés and the Cuernavaca Encomiendas, 1522–1547

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

G. Michael Riley
G. Michael Riley*
Affiliation:
Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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Extract

During the quarter-century following the conquest of the Aztec Confederacy in 1519–1521, Fernando Cortés, the major figure in that epic achievement of Spanish arms in the New World, acquired a great estate in central and southern México consisting of the tributes and labor services of populous Indian towns, extensive land holdings, mines, Indian and Negro slaves, and business enterprises. In 1529 Charles V conferred upon Cortés the title of Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca, and subsequently these properties and interests were collectively designated in colonial records as the Marquesado de Cortés. The Marquesado, which Cortés, with royal authorization, set up in 1535 as a mayorazgo, or entailed estate, was inherited at his death in 1547 by his legitimate son, Martín Cortés, born of his second marriage. Subject to various modifications and vicissitudes, the Estate remained in the hands of Cortés’ descendants during the entire colonial period.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , July 1968 , pp. 3 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1968

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References

1 The University of New Mexico and the Social Science Research Council generously provided the author with funds for the Spanish archival and other investigation necessary to the treatment of this topic. For guidance and assistance in its development, the author is deeply indebted to Professor France V. Scholes, Research Professor Emeritus in the University of New Mexico.

2 Although this part of the Cortés estate in the New World apparently had no all-inclusive designation, the name of the town which served as the administrative headquarters for the estate holdings in the area and which was Cortés’ primary residence outside the Valley of México has been so employed. Certainly Cuernavaca was also the most heavily populated and the wealthiest economically among the towns in the surrounding countryside.

3 This estimate is based upon the data and methods set forth in Woodrow Borah and Cook, Sherburne F., The Aboriginal Population of Central Mexico on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1963)Google Scholar.

4 Barlow, R. H., The Extent of the Empire of the Culhua Mexica (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1949)Google Scholar describes the tributary provinces of the Aztec Confederacy and lists the major towns (cabeceras) of each. The major sources utilized by Barlow were the Codex Mendoza in the Bodleian Library of Oxford University and the Matrícula de Tributos in the Museo Nacional de Etnología e Historia, Mexico City.

5 Sandoval, Fernando B., La industria del azúcar en Nueva España (México, 1951), p. 21.Google Scholar

6 Cortés, Hernán, Cartas de Relacíon (México, 1960), p. 144 Google Scholar. Cortés expressed opposition to the repartimiento-encomienda system as it was known in Cuba in his reports to the crown beginning in 1522 while justifying at the same time the need for his own brand of that system in New Spain.

7 For a more detailed discussion of the encomienda system as it developed in New Spain, see Simpson, Lesley Byrd, The Encomienda in New Spain: The Beginning of Spanish México (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1950)Google Scholar and Zavala, Silvio, La encomienda indiana (Madrid, 1935)Google Scholar.

8 This system is described in Barlow; Miranda, José, El tributo indígena en la Nueva España durante el siglo XVI (México, 1952)Google Scholar and Scholes, France V. and Adams, Eleanor B. (eds.), Documentos para la historia del México colonial (7 vols.; Mexico, 1954- )Google Scholar, Vol. IV (1957), Información sobre los tributos que los indios pagaban a Moctezuma.

9 Zavala, pp. 40–61.

10 Gibson, Charles, The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule: A History of the Indians of the Valley of México, 1519–1810 (Stanford, California, 1964), pp. 257–264 Google Scholar. Land acquisition and utilization by the Spanish is also treated in Caso, Alfonso, “La tenencia de la tierra entre los antiguos mexicanos,” Memoria de el colegio nacional, IV (1958-1960)Google Scholar; Chevalier, François, La formación de las grandes latifundias en México (México, 1956)Google Scholar; Gibson, Charles, “The Aztec Aristocracy in Colonial México,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, II (1960)Google Scholar; and Kirchoff, Paul, “Land Tenure in Ancient México. A preliminary sketch,” Revista mexicana de estudios antropológicos, XIV (1954-1955)Google Scholar.

11 Bancroft, Hubert H., History of México (6 vols.; San Francisco, 1883-1888), II, 31–32 Google Scholar.

12 Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista, y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas de América y Oceania. (42 vols.; Madrid, 1864–1884), XIII, 107; XXVI, 379–380, 429–430, 472–473; XXVII, 23. Numerous modern writers have demonstrated this fact by noting the contemporary correspondence of royal officials and the crown, lawsuit testimony, and the letters of Cortés and others. The preceding citations refer to exemplary items of these data, including the charges and testimony in the “pesquisa secreta” conducted against Cortés in 1529 and Bishop Zumárraga’s well-known letter to the crown of August 27, 1529.

13 AGN, Hospital de Jesús 265, exp. 5, Información sobre los pueblos que Hernán Cortés tenía al tiempo que fue a la conquista de Honduras, así como lo que rentaron, 1531. The peso de oro. (de minas) probably had a gold content value equal to the gold content value of about six of our dollars; on that basis alone the minimum annual income Cortés received from these encomiendas was the equivalent of $238,800.00. See Scholes, France V., “The Spanish Conqueror As a Businessman,” New Mexico Quarterly, XXVII, 1 (Spring 1958), 11Google Scholar.

14 lbid. This proceso initiated by Cortés’ attorneys in 1531 was an attempt to secure the revenues from Cortés’ encomiendas which Pedro Almindes Cherinos, New Spain’s first veedor, in alliance with Gonzalo de Salazar, the colony’s factor, had seized in 1525 and early 1526 and which were not regained by the Conqueror until his return from Honduras in May of 1526. A list of Cortés’ holdings was entered in these proceedings by his attorneys, and witnesses testified to its accuracy. This list compares more or less favorably with several others related to the same period. One of these attested by witnesses appears in AGI, Justicia 108, No. 1, Antonio Serrano, regidor y vecino de México, con Hernando Cortés, Marqués del Valle, sobre derecho al pueblo de Cuernavaca y sus sujetos, 1530. Another is included in a letter written by Cortés to his father in 1526 after he had regained most of his encomienda towns, recorded in AGI, Justicia 185, ramo 2, Don Hernando Cortés, Marqués del Valle, con el fiscal de su Majestad sobre el pago de una multa de 62,000 pesos de oro, 1529.

15 Tetela and Hueyapan were granted in encomienda to a member of Orozco’s expedition of 1521 which penetrated that locale. Bancroft, II, 39, and Troncoso, Francisco del Paso y (ed.), Papeles de Nueva España (6 vols.; Madrid, 1905-1906), VI, 283 and I, 96Google Scholar.

16 The alterations made by Cortés in the kinds and amounts of tribute paid by the towns in the Cuernavaca area are dealt with in Micheal Riley, G., “The Estate of Fernando Cortés in the Cuernavaca Area of México, 1522–1547“ (Doctoral dissertation, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 1965), pp. 78–80 Google Scholar. A detailed discussion of the use of the Mexican system with modifications in the Valley of México is presented in Gibson, , The Arztecs, pp. 32–97, 194–299Google Scholar.

17 Nuevos documentos relativos a los bienes de Hernán Cortés, 1547–1947xs (México, 1946), pp. 143–169, and AGI, Justicia 156, no. 1. An Audiencia letter to the crown of 1532 indicates the difficulties which arose from Cortés’ organization of tribute-paying towns as encomienda grants, the town of Acapistla and its sujetos being an example, Paso, Francisco del y Troncoso, (ed.), Epistolario de Nueva España (16 vols.; México, 1939-1942), II, 208–221 Google Scholar.

18 AGI, Justicia 108, no. 1, and Justicia 156, no. 1; AGN, Hospital de Jesús 265, exp. 5. For the changes made in 1523 there is considerable evidence, examples of which are included in the following: DII, XII, 277–285, and XXVI, 276–280.

19 AGI, Justicia 108, no. 1, and Justicia 156, no. 1; AGN, Hospital de Jesús 265, exp. 5.

20 The purpose and events of the Honduras venture are not related here as they are well-known and not sufficiently germane to warrant inclusion.

21 Rodrigo de Paz was the son of Francisco Núñez, a notary of Salamanca, Spain, and Inés de Paz, a sister of Cortés’ father. In his youth Cortés lived for a year or more with the Núñez-Paz family in Salamanca. From the later 1520’s to the mid-1540’s a brother of Rodrigo de Paz named Francisco Núñez, a relator of the Royal Council of Castille, served as Cortés’ procurador (attorney) in Spain.

22 This data was supplied by Professor France V. Scholes from his study of the trial, torture, and execution of Rodrigo de Paz as recorded in AGI, Justicia 111.

23 ENE, I, 89.

24 For example, Cortés had granted the pueblo of Yanhuitlan, one of the most populous towns in the Oaxaca area, as an encomienda to his cousin, Francisco de las Casas, who had come to México after the conquest of the Aztec Confederacy had been attained. It was this Francisco de la Casas whom Cortés sent to Honduras early in 1524 to punish the disloyalty of Cristóbal de Olid. Spores, Ronald, The Mixtec Kings and Their People (Norman, Oklahoma, 1967), pp. 77–78 Google Scholar.

25 AGI, Justicia 108, no. 1. Serrano was known earlier as Villaroel but had changed his name by this time. When Inés de Paz, mother of Rodrigo de Paz, instituted criminal proceedings in 1531 before the Second Audiencia of México against Salazar and Cherinos on charges relating to the execution of her son, Serrano was named as co-defendant (Professor Scholes study of AGI, Justicia 111).

26 ENE, I, 78–90.

27 AGI, Justicia 108, no. 1, and AGN, Hospital de Jesús 265, exp. 5.

28 AGN, Hospital de Jesús 289, exp. 100, Proceso de Tepuztlan y Yautepeque contra el Marqués sobre que no pueden complir [con sus tributos], 1551.

29 Aguilar’s assumption of authority to make grants of encomienda is attested by documentation in AGI, Justicia, and AGN, Hospital de Jesús. During his tenure as governor of New Spain, he issued an interesting series of ordinances relating to the duties and obligations of encomenderos. This information was supplied by Professor Scholes from his investigation of AGI, Justicia 115, no. 3, Martín Vásquez con Hernando Maldonado, vecinos de México, sobre derecho al pueblo de Atoyaque, 1532.

30 Many examples of encomienda grants by Estrada are recorded in the Patronato and Justicia Sections of AGI.

31 A listing of these grants is recorded in AGI, Justicia 113, no. 5, Pleito de Juan de Burgos, vecino de México, con Hernán Cortes, Marqués del Valle, sobre derecho a un pueblo de indios, 1531.

32 Ibid.; AGN, Hospital de Jesús 289, exp. 100; Nuevos documentos, 143–169.

33 Record of the residencia proceedings of Velázquez conducted by Altamirano, 1525–1526, is preserved in AGI, Justicia 49, no. 1. For more than twenty years thereafter Altamirano served as the principal administrator and legal agent of the Cortés Estate in New Spain.

34 Rayón, Ignacio López (ed.), Sumario de la residencia tomada a D. Fernando Cortés (2 vols.; México, 1852-1853)Google Scholar. These volumes record only a part of the residencia proceedings. Additional portions were printed in DII, XXVI-XXIX. The entire manucript record of the residencia preserved in AGI, Justicia 220–225 comprises more than 6,800 folios and covers a period extending from 1529 to the 1540’s (information supplied by Professor Scholes).

35 AGN, Hospital de Jesús 266, exp. 79, Tres cuadernos de autos contra bienes de D. Hernando Cortés, 1529. These fines included, for example, one of 32,000 pesos which was an attempt to recover royal treasury funds disbursed in 1523–1524 by Cortés to cover the expenses of Cristóbal de Olid’s expedition to Honduras.

36 Puga, Vasco de (ed.), Provisiones, cédulas, instrucciones para el gobierno de la Nueva España. México, 1563 (facsimile reprint, Madrid, 1945), pp. 82–109 Google Scholar.

37 AGN, Hospital de Jesús 289, exp. 100, and AGI, Justicia 146, no. 1.

38 These are the agreements discussed in the preceding paragraphs.

39 AGI, Justicia 113, no. 5.

40 This is suggested by the claims made by Cortés on several occasions that the Audiencia took this town from him while he was in Spain (AGI, Justicia 118, no. 2 and DII, XII, 5–31) and the testimony in a suit between Cortés and the fiscal in 1533 over Acapistla’s sujetos which indicates that Cortés took that town from Solís and Holguín after his return from Spain on the basis of his Marquesado grant of 1529 rather than their agreements made in 1528 (Nuevos documentos, 143–145).

41 AGN, Hospital de Jesús 289, exp. 100.

42 lbid.

43 Garza, Arteaga, Beatriz, , y Vicente, Guadalupe Pérez San (eds.), Cedulario Cortesiano (México, 1949), pp. 103–105 Google Scholar.

44 Orozco, Manuel y Berra, , Historia de la dominación española en México (2 vols.; México, 1938), II, 29–31 Google Scholar; and Alamán, Lucas, Disertaciones (3 vols.; México, 1942), II, 29–30 Google Scholar.

45 Garza, Arteaga, pp. 108–122; Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista, y organización de las antiguas posesiones españoles de Ultramar. Segunda serie. (25 vols.; Madrid, 1885-1932), IX, 386–399 and 439–447Google Scholar. For a discussion of the crown’s attitude toward the encomienda in this period, see Zavala, pp. 60–61.

46 Arteaga Garza, pp. 123–124 and 190–192.

47 For the cédulas of July see DII, IV, 572–574, and XII, 404–407. For the later legislation which included the Conqueror’s appointment as governor of the areas discovered in the Mar del Sur, see DII, XXI, 379 ss, and XXII, 289–295.

48 Arteaga Garza, pp. 93–95 and 122–123.

49 Ibid., pp. 140–141, 168–172, 175–189; DII, XII, 406–447, 510–514, and XIV, 395–440.

60 DII, XII, 396–403, XIII, 431–434; and Arteaga Garza, 164–168. For the suit concerned with the costs of the Honduras expedition, see AGI, Justicia 185, ramo 2. The order to pay Cortés a certain part of these costs (1531) is included in Arteaga Garza, pp. 212–213.

51 Arteaga Garza, pp. 125–132 and 141–164.

52 Alamán, pp. 296–310, and DII, XIII, 238ss. The Pope also legitimatized three of his natural children, Martín, Luis, and Catalina Pizarro.

53 Puga, p. 75, and DII, XIII, 237–241.

54 Arteaga Garza, pp. 190–192.

55 In AGI, Justicia and AGN, Hospital de Jesús the costs of the numerous judicial disputes in which Cortés was plaintiff or defendant in the years 1531 et. seq., are recorded.

56 AGI, Justicia 108, no. 1.

57 AGI, Justicia 113, no. 5.

58 Bancroft, History, II, 412; ENE, II, 35–64; and AGI Patronato 16, no. 2, ramo 31.

59 AGI, Patronato 16, no. 2, ramo 30. Additional data pertinent to the agreement is included in DII, XIV, 329–347 and DII, XII, 514–520.

60 Nuevos documentos, pp. 123–169; AGN, Hospital de Jesús 409, exp. 25, Proceso del Marqués del Valle contra los licenciados Salmerón y otros sobre lo de Totolapa, 1536; ENE, II, 208–221; and PNE, III, 7.

61 Library of Congress, Harkness Collection of MSS concerning México, Vol. XLII, Confirmación que S. M. hizo al . . . Marqués del Valle de las 22 villas y lugares que tiene en la Nueva España sin limitación de vasallos . . ., Toledo, 16 Dic., 1560.

62 AGI, Justicia 201B, no. 2, ramo 4, Processo del Marqués del Valle con el fiscal sobre la suplicación que interpuso de la que se cometió al Doctor Quesada en razón de la visita del Marquesado, 1550.