Editing Tetzcoco (altepetl) (section)

==Rulers of Tetzcoco==
{{main|List of rulers of Tetzcoco}}
Xolotl was said to be the founder of Tetzcoco in 1115 AD and reigned until 1232. He was followed by Nopaltzin (1232–1263), Tlotzin (1263–1298), Quinatzin (1298–1357), Techotlalazin (1357–1409), Ixlilxochitl (1409–1418), Nezahualcoyotl (1420–1472), Nezahualpilli (1472–1516), Cacama (1517–1519), Coanchochtzin (1520–1521), and Don Fernando Ixtlilxochitl (1521–1531).<ref>Ancient Mexico and Central America, p. 450</ref>

[[File:Nezahualcoyotl.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Nezahualcoyotl as shown in the [[Codex Ixtlilxochitl]], folio 106R, painted roughly a century after Nezahualcoyotl's death.]][[Nezahualcoyotl (tlatoani)|Nezahualcoyotl]] (1403–1473) was a noted poet,  philosopher, and patron of the arts. He also had a large botanical and zoological garden, with specimens of plants and animals from throughout the empire and from the more distant lands with which the Empire traded.

Nezahualcoyotl's son [[Nezahualpilli]] (1464–1515) continued the tradition of patronizing the arts.

In 1520 the troops of [[Hernán Cortés]] occupied the city and killed [[Cacamatzin]], Nezahualpilli's son and the last independent ''tlatoani'', installing [[Ixtlilxochitl II]] as a puppet ruler.  Cortés made Tetzcoco his base and employed Tetzcocan warriors in the [[Siege of Tenochtitlan]].

After the fall of Tenochtitlan, Spanish authorities continued to recognize the importance of Tetzcoco as a Spanish ''altepetl'', designating it as one of four urban centers in the Valley of Mexico as a ''ciudad,'' "city," rebranding it "Te'''x'''coco." The Tetzcoca royal family continued to rule, handling succession to the throne in accordance with the traditional Aztec patterns of legitimacy. In this unique passage of kingship, cohorts of brothers inherited the right to rule, then sons of the next cohort, with claims to inheritance revolving around [[Consanguinity|consanguinean]] ties to Mexica royalty from Tenochtitlan.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Restall|first=Matthew|title=When Montezuma Met Cortes: The True Story of the Meeting that Changed History|publisher=Ecco|year=2018|isbn=0062427288|location=United States|pages=265}}</ref> 

[[Ixtlilxochitl II|Alva Ixtlilxochitl]], the immediate Tetzcoca heir after the Spanish-Aztec War, presided over colonial Texcoco as governor until his death in approximately 1550. Restall describes the political situation of Texcoco in the coming decades as follows:<blockquote>"when Ixtlilxochitl died, he was succeeded by three of his brothers, don Jorge Yoyontzin (to 1533), don Pedro Tetlahuehuetzquititzin (to 1539), and don Antonio Pimentel Tlahuitolzin (to 1545); the latter's nephew (and a son of [[Coanacoch]]), don Hernando Pimentel Nezahualcoyotzin, would then rule as ''tlahtoani'' [king] ''and gobernador'' [governor] for two decades. Ixtlilxochitl's postwar rule thus ushered in a return of governmental stability, with the succession dispute and lethal warfare and lethal warfare of 1515-1521 a relatively short disruption to the otherwise calm dynastic century and a half from Nezahualcoyot through his great-grandson Pimentel. The dynasty would lose control of the city's top political office after that, but would persist as a landed aristocracy for centuries. Tetzcoco's decline as a regional power would likewise be very gradual, beginning at the end of the sixteenth century."<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>Concurrent with these politics was a mass outbreak of [[smallpox]] which ravaged Texcoco in the few months after the Spanish-Aztec War. This outbreak both shortened the tenures of Texcoco's last ''tlahtoanis'' and sent the city's population into freefall.