Maxixcatl

Maxixcatl
Painting of Maxixcatzin in Tlaxcala Regional Museum
Tlatoani of Ocotelolco
Reign	? - 1520
Predecessor	Cuitlixcatl
Successor	Lorenzo Maxixcatl
Died	1520 (1521)
Issue	Lorenzo Maxixcatl

Maxixcatl (also often given, in its Nahuatl honorific form, as Maxixcatzin) was the tlatoani (ruler) of the Nahua altepetl (city-state) of Ocotelolco, one of the four towns that formed the state of Tlaxcallān. He was one of the main signatories of the alliance with Hernán Cortés during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.

Biography

Maxixcatzin was instrumental in forming the alliance between Tlaxcallān and the Spanish force of Hernán Cortés against the Aztecs. He gave his daughter Zicuetzin—baptized as Luisa—to Juan Velazquez de Leon, both of whom were killed on La Noche Triste.

Maxixcatl died in the smallpox epidemic which decimated the indigenous population of central Mexico in 1520. He was succeeded by his 13-year-old son Lorenzo Maxixcatl.

See also

• Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
• Xicotencatl II
• Xicotencatl the Elder

Further reading

• Hassig, Ross (2001) "Xicotencatl: rethinking an indigenous Mexican hero", Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl, UNAM (Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl).