Editing Pedro de Alvarado (section)

==Expedition to Mexico, 1519==
{{see also|Spanish conquest of Yucatán#Hernán Cortés, 1519}}
[[File:Hernán Cortés anónimo.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Hernán Cortés]] led the expedition against the Aztecs.|alt=Old painting of a bearded young man facing slightly to the right. He is wearing a dark jacket with a high collar topped by a white ruff, with ornate buttons down the front. The painting is dark and set in an oval with the letters "HERNAN CORTES" in a rectangle underneath.]]
Grijalva's return aroused great interest in Cuba. A new expedition was organised, with a fleet of eleven ships carrying 500 men and some horses. Hernán Cortés was placed in command;<ref name="SharerTraxler06p760"/> Pedro de Alvarado and his brothers Jorge, Gómez and Juan "El Bastardo" joined the expedition. Cortés charged Pedro de Alvarado with gathering recruits from the inland estates of Cuba.<ref name="Recinos86p21"/> The crew included officers that would become famous conquistadors, including [[Cristóbal de Olid]], [[Gonzalo de Sandoval]] and [[Diego de Ordaz]]. Also aboard were [[Francisco de Montejo]] and [[Bernal Díaz del Castillo]], veterans of the Grijalva expedition.<ref name="SharerTraxler06p760"/>

Alvarado once again commanded the ''San Sebastián'', with 60 men under his orders.<ref>García Añoveros 1987, p. 245.</ref> The fleet made its first landfall at Cozumel, and remained there for several days. Maya temples were cast down and a Christian cross was put up on one of them.<ref name="SharerTraxler06p760"/> From Cozumel, the fleet looped around the north of the Yucatán Peninsula and followed the coast to the Tabasco River.<ref name="SharerTraxler06p761">Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 761.</ref> In Tabasco, the fleet anchored at [[Potonchán]],<ref name="Townsend92,95p16">Townsend 1995, p. 16.</ref> a [[Chontal Maya people|Chontal Maya]] town.<ref>Hernández et al 2010, p. 26.</ref> The Maya prepared for [[Potonchán#Battle of Centla|battle]] but the Spanish horses and firearms quickly decided the outcome.<ref name="Townsend92,95p16"/> From Potonchán, the fleet continued to San Juan de Ulua.<ref>Levy, Buddy. "Conquistador." Bantam Books, 2008, p. 29.</ref> The crew stayed only a short time before relocating to a promontory near Quiahuiztlan<ref>Levy, Buddy. "Conquistador." Bantam Books, 2008, p. 42.</ref> and [[Cempoala]], a subject city of the Aztec Empire.<ref name="Townsend92,95p16"/> Some of the Spaniards stayed near the coast when Cortés journeyed inland but Alvarado accompanied Cortés on the inland march.<ref>Thomas, Hugh. Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes, and the Fall of Old Mexico. Simon and Schuster, 1993, p. 233</ref> While marching toward Tenochtitlan, the expedition made a slight detour to travel through Tlaxcalteca lands. The Tlaxcalteca attacked the Spanish force numerous times but they were unable to rout the Spanish forces. After making an alliance with the Tlaxcalteca, the Spanish went on to conquer the Aztecs.<ref>Townsend 1995, pp. 16ff.</ref>

[[File:Castillo-de-Alvarado--Wall.jpg|thumb|200px|The remains of the "Castillo de Alvarado", [[Chamela]], Jalisco]]
Alvarado commanded one of the eleven vessels in the fleet and also acted as Cortés' second in command during the expedition's first stay in the [[Aztec]] capital city of [[Tenochtitlán]].  Relations between the Spaniards and their hosts were uneasy, especially given Cortés' repeated insistence that the [[Human sacrifice in Aztec culture|Aztecs desist from idol worship and human sacrifice]]; in order to ensure their own safety, the Spaniards took the Aztec king [[Moctezuma II|Moctezuma]] hostage. When Cortés returned to the Gulf coast to deal with the newly arrived hostile expedition of [[Pánfilo de Narváez]], Alvarado remained in Tenochtitlan as commander of the Spanish enclave, with strict orders to make sure that Moctezuma not be permitted to escape.<ref name="CEpedro">"Conquered Conquistadors", ''Florine G.L. Asselbergs'', First Edition, published 2004</ref>{{Page needed|date=February 2015}}

During Cortés' absence, relations between the Spaniards and their hosts went from bad to worse, and Alvarado perpetrated the [[Massacre in the Great Temple]], killing Aztec nobles and priests observing a religious festival.<ref name=Diaz/>{{rp|283–286}} Alvarado claims he did so because he feared the Aztecs were plotting against him but there is no physical evidence to support this claim and the alleged warnings he received came from tortured captives that very likely would have said anything to make the torture stop.<ref>Levy, Buddy. Conquistador. Bantam Books, 2009, p.166</ref> When Cortés returned to Tenochtitlan, he found the Spanish force under siege.  After Moctezuma was killed in the attempt to negotiate with his own people, the Spaniards determined to escape by fighting their way across one of the causeways that led from the city across the lake and to the mainland.<ref name=Diaz/>{{rp|286,294,296}}  In a bloody nocturnal action of 10 July 1520, known as [[La Noche Triste]], Alvarado led the rear-guard and was badly wounded.<ref name=Diaz/><ref>{{Cite book|last=Hanson|first=Victor Davis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGr16-CxpH8C|title=Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power|date=2007-12-18|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-42518-8|language=en}}</ref>{{rp|296–300}}  According to satirical verses by Gonzalo Ocampo, in reference to Alvarado crossing a causeway gap during the escape, Alvarado's escape became known as ''Salto de Alvarado'' ("Alvarado's Leap").<ref name=Diaz/>{{rp|296–300}}

Pedro then participated in the [[Siege of Tenochtitlan]], commanding one of four forces under Cortés.<ref name=Diaz/>{{rp|315,319,333,351,355–356,358,360,363,369–370,372}}  Alvarado was wounded when Cuauhtemoc attacked all three Spanish camps on the feast day of St. John.<ref name=Diaz/>{{rp|377–378,381,384–385,388–389}} Alvarado's company was the first to make it to the Tlateloco marketplace, setting fire to the Aztec shrines.  Cortés' and Sandoval's companies joined him there after four more days of fighting.<ref name=Diaz/>{{rp|396–308}}