Hernбn Cortйs de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortйs was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers that began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
Born in Medellнn, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortйs chose to pursue a livelihood in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba.
In 1519, he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, an expedition which he partly funded. His enmity with the Governor of Cuba, Diego Velбzquez de Cuйllar, resulted in the recall of the expedition at the last moment, an order which Cortйs ignored. Arriving on the continent, Cortйs executed a successful strategy of allying with some indigenous peoples against others. He also used a native woman, Doсa Marina, as an interpreter; she would later bear Cortйs a son.
When the Governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortйs, he fought them and won, using the extra troops as reinforcements. Cortйs wrote letters directly to the king asking to be acknowledged for his successes instead of punished for mutiny. After he overthrew the Aztec Empire, Cortйs was awarded the title of Marquйs del Valle de Oaxaca, while the more prestigious title of Viceroy was given to a high-ranking nobleman, Antonio de Mendoza.
Cortйs returned to Spain in 1541 where he died peacefully but embittered six years later.
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