This study recounts the fate of Moctezuma II’s heirs during the early colonial era, focusing on three in particular. The first is Isabel Moctezuma (Tecuichpotzin), daughter of Moctezuma’s principal wife, Teotlaco, and known for her marriages, especially to her third Spanish husband, Juan Cano. Because none of Moctezuma’s male children from this marriage survived the conquest, Isabel became his primary heir. Her biography has much to say about Spanish interactions with the indigenous nobility, particularly its female members, in the early postconquest years. Chipman also discusses two other heirs, doña Mariana (known also as doña Leonor), a half-sister of Isabel, and don Pedro, a half-brother. The origins and statuses of their mothers figured in their life outcomes and in the legal conflicts in which each became embroiled.
The book originated in Chipman’s research on Isabel and Mariana, as well as the unpublished research of his former doctoral student Ann Prather...
