Editing Moctezuma II (section)

==Contemporary depictions==
===Bernal Díaz del Castillo===
{{Aztecbox}}
[[File:Moctezuma Mendoza.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.55|Moctezuma II in the ''[[Codex Mendoza]]'']]
The firsthand account of [[Bernal Díaz del Castillo]]'s ''[[Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España|True History of the Conquest of New Spain]]'' paints a portrait of a noble leader who struggles to maintain order in his kingdom after he is taken prisoner by [[Hernán Cortés]]. In his first description of Moctezuma, Díaz del Castillo writes:

{{quote|The Great Montezuma was about forty years old, of good height, well proportioned, spare and slight, and not very dark, though of the usual Indian complexion. He did not wear his hair long but just over his ears, and he had a short black beard, well-shaped and thin. His face was rather long and cheerful, he had fine eyes, and in his appearance and manner could express geniality or, when necessary, a serious composure. He was very neat and clean and took a bath every afternoon. He had many women as his mistresses, the daughters of chieftains, but two legitimate wives who were [[Cacique]]s<ref group="N.B.">''[[Cacique]]'' is a hispanicized word of Caribbean origins, meaning "hereditary lord/chief" or "(military) leader". After first encountering the term and office in the Caribbean, conquest-era writers such as Díaz often used it to describe indigenous rulers generally.</ref> in their own right, and only some of his servants knew of it. He was quite free from sodomy. The clothes he wore one day he did not wear again till three or four days later. He had a guard of two hundred chieftains lodged in rooms beside his own, only some of whom were permitted to speak to him.{{sfn|Díaz del Castillo|1963|pp=224–225}}}}

When Moctezuma was allegedly killed by being stoned to death by his people, "Cortés and all of us captains and soldiers wept for him, and there was no one among us that knew him and had dealings with him who did not mourn him as if he were our father, which was not surprising since he was so good. It was stated that he had reigned for seventeen years, and was the best king they ever had in Mexico, and that he had personally triumphed in three wars against countries he had subjugated. I have spoken of the sorrow we all felt when we saw that Montezuma was dead. We even blamed the [[Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy|Mercedarian]] friar for not having persuaded him to become a Christian."{{sfn|Díaz del Castillo|1963|p=294}}

===Hernán Cortés===
[[File:Motzume.jpg|thumb|upright|Moctezuma II, from {{lang|fr|Les vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres}}, Paris 1584]]

Unlike Bernal Díaz, who was recording his memories many years after the fact, Cortés wrote his {{lang|es|Cartas de relación}} (''Letters from Mexico'') to justify his actions to the Spanish Crown. His prose is characterized by simple descriptions and explanations, along with frequent personal addresses to the King. In his Second Letter, Cortés describes his first encounter with Moctezuma thus:

{{quote|
Moctezuma {{sic}} came to greet us and with him some two hundred lords, all barefoot and dressed in a different costume, but also very rich in their way and more so than the others. They came in two columns, pressed very close to the walls of the street, which is very wide and beautiful and so straight that you can see from one end to the other. Moctezuma came down the middle of this street with two chiefs, one on his right hand and the other on his left. And they were all dressed alike except that Moctezuma wore sandals whereas the others went barefoot, and they held his arm on either side.{{sfn|Cortés|1986|p=84}}}}

Anthony Pagden and Eulalia Guzmán have pointed out the Biblical messages that Cortés seems to ascribe to Moctezuma's retelling of the legend of Quetzalcoatl as a vengeful [[Messiah]] who would return to rule over the [[Mexica]]. Pagden has written that "There is no preconquest tradition which places [[Quetzalcoatl]] in this role, and it seems possible therefore that it was elaborated by [[Bernardino de Sahagún|Sahagún]] and [[Motolinía]] from informants who themselves had partially lost contact with their traditional tribal histories".{{sfn|Cortés|1986|p=467}}<ref>Guzman, Eulalia. {{lang|es|Relaciones de Hernan Cortes a Carlos V sobre la invasion de Anáhuac}}. Vol. I. Mexico, 1958, p. 279.</ref>

===Bernardino de Sahagún===
The Florentine Codex, made by Bernardino de Sahagún and indigenous scholars under his tutelage, relied on native informants from [[Tlatelolco (altepetl)|Tlatelolco]] and generally portrays Tlatelolco and Tlatelolcan rulers in a favorable light relative to those of Tenochtitlan. Historian [[Matthew Restall]] claims that the Codex depicts Moctezuma as weak-willed, superstitious, and indulgent.{{sfn|Restall|2003}} [[James Lockhart (historian)|James Lockhart]] suggests that Moctezuma fills the role of a scapegoat for the Aztec defeat.{{sfn|Lockhart|1993|pp=17–19}}

Other historians have noted that the Codex may not necessarily cast Moctezuma as cowardly and responsible for Spanish colonization. Rebecca Dufendach argues that the Codex reflects the native informants' uniquely indigenous manner of portraying leaders who suffered from poor health brought on by fright.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dufendach|first=Rebecca|date=1 October 2019|title='As if His Heart Died': A Reinterpretation of Moteuczoma's Cowardice in the Conquest History of the Florentine Codex|url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/ethnohistory/article/66/4/623/140288/As-if-His-Heart-Died-A-Reinterpretation-of|journal=Ethnohistory|volume=66|issue=4|pages=623–645|doi=10.1215/00141801-7683240|s2cid=204479194 |access-date=13 July 2023}}</ref>

===Fernando Alvarado Tezozómoc===
[[Fernando Alvarado Tezozómoc]], who may have written the {{lang|es|[[Crónica Mexicayotl]]}}, was possibly a grandson of Moctezuma II. His chronicle may relate mostly to the genealogy of the Aztec rulers. He described Moctezuma's issue and estimated them to be nineteen – eleven sons and eight daughters.<ref>Tezozomoc, Fernando Alvarado (1992) [1949]. {{lang|es|Crónica Mexicayotl}}. Translated by Adrián León. UNAM, México</ref>