WAR BETWEEN ACOLHUAS AND TEPANECS.
The first act of open hostility took place in 1415, when Tezozomoc sent an army in several divisions round the lake southward to devastate the country, destroy the minor towns belonging to the emperor, to join forces at Aztahuacan, take and fortify Iztapalocan, an important city near by, and from that place to march on Tezcuco and capture the emperor. The plan succeeded at first and many towns were pillaged. A traitor led them by the best routes and gave them instructions as to manner of assaulting, or, as Brasseur says, admitted them into the city of Iztapalocan; but the inhabitants under the brave governor, Quauhxilotzin, succeed in repulsing the Tepanec forces although not without considerable loss of prisoners, to which misfortune was joined the death of the brave governor, murdered by the hands of the same traitor mentioned above. Ixtlilxochitl, hearing of the march of his enemy, came to Iztapalocan from Tezcuco soon after the battle, with a small army hastily gathered; but the Tepanecs finding that their plan had failed in its main object, had retreated to Azcapuzalco, and the emperor's force was too small to attack Tezozomoc in his intrenchments.[VII-24]
Before beginning a campaign against Tezozomoc, Ixtlilxochitl called a meeting of such vassal lords as were accessible, and had his son Nezahualcoyotl proclaimed, with all the pomp of the old Toltec rites, as his successor on the imperial throne. The high-priests of Huexotla and Cholula assisted at the ceremonies, and the only lords present were those of Huexotla,[VII-25] Coatlichan, and Iztapalocan; others who were faithful were busy preparing their forces for war. The authorities do not agree whether this meeting took place in Tezcuco or Huexotla, and some imply that Ixtlilxochitl was crowned at the same time.[VII-26]
Tezozomoc, too old to lead his armies in person, gave his son Maxtla and the kings of Mexico and Tlatelulco, the highest places in command, making the latter, Tlacateotzin, commander-in-chief. He also took especial care in strengthening his fortifications on the frontier. Ixtlilxochitl divided his forces in three divisions; the first, commanded by Tochintzin, grandson of the lord of Coatlichan, was stationed in towns just north of the capital; the second, under Ixcontzin, lord of Iztapalocan, was to protect the southern provinces; while the third, under the emperor himself, remained near Tezcuco, ready to render aid to his officers where it should be most needed. They were ordered to remain within their intrenchments and await the enemy's movements. The Tepanecs and their allies crossed the lake in canoes, landed in the region of Huexotla, carried some small settlements on the lake shores, and assaulted the Acolhuas in their intrenched positions. Day after day they repeated the assault, and were driven back each time with heavy loss, both sides in the meantime receiving strong reinforcements. Finally Tochintzin feigned a retreat towards Chiuhnauhtlan, drew the Tepanecs in pursuit, faced about suddenly and utterly routed the forces of Tlacateotzin. The lake shore was covered with the dead, and the defeated army retired in confusion to Azcapuzalco. The good-natured emperor gave orders to discontinue offensive operations, and sent an embassy proffering peace on condition of submission to him as emperor, and offering to forget the past. Tezozomoc haughtily declined the overtures, claimed a right, as the nearest relative of the great Xolotl, to the title of Chichimecatl Tecuhtli, and announced his intention to enforce his claims, naming a day when his armies would again meet the Acolhuas on the field of Chiuhnauhtlan. This may be the challenge already referred to as recorded by Torquemada. At any rate, it was accepted, a large army was concentrated at the point indicated, and another at Huexotla, which place, as was ascertained, Tezozomoc really intended treacherously to attack, and which he expected to find comparatively undefended. Tlacateotzin crossed the lake as before in canoes with an immense army, but as before was defeated in a succession of battles, and after some days forced to retreat to the Tepanec capital, branches of the Acolhua army in the meantime sacking several towns in the enemy's domain, and punishing several lords who had deserted the emperor to join Tezozomoc.[VII-27]
IXTLILXOCHITL'S VICTORIES.
Ixtlilxochitl's star was now in the ascendant; his valor and success in war inspired new confidence; and many lords who had hitherto held aloof, now declared their allegiance to the emperor. As usual, the Tezcucan monarch was disposed to suspend his military operations, and receive the allegiance which he supposed Tezozomoc would now be ready to offer; but he soon learned that his adversary, far from abandoning his projects, had succeeded, by new promises of a future division of territory and spoils, in gaining over to his side the lords of two powerful provinces, one of which was Chalco, adjoining the Acolhuan domain on the north and south. Exasperated at his foe's persistence, and having a larger army than ever before at his command, Ixtlilxochitl determined to punish Tezozomoc and his allies in their own territory. Leaving at and about Iztapalocan, and under the lord of that city, a sufficient army to keep the Chalcas in check, he marched at the head of a large army northward and round the lakes, taking in his course Otompan and Tollan with many towns of minor importance. Now without opposition, now after a bloody combat, town after town fell before the advancing conqueror, whose fury was directed against Tepanec soldiers and treacherous vassals, women and children being in all cases spared. In the province of Tepotzotlan he was met by the regular Tepanec army of 200,000 men under the Tlatelulcan king Tlacateotzin, who attempted to stay the tide of invasion, but after a desperate conflict, was forced back to Quauhtitlan, and then to Tepatec, where a second great battle was fought. Defeated at every step, the allied rebels were at last forced to retreat within the fortifications of Temalpalco, which defended Tezozomoc's capital, Azcapuzalco. For four months, as some authorities state, the siege of the city was prolonged, Ixtlilxochitl endeavoring rather to harass the pent-up enemy, and gradually reduce their number, than to bring about a general engagement. Finally, when he could hold out no longer, Tezozomoc sent an embassy to the emperor, throwing himself entirely upon his mercy, but pleading most humbly for pardon, reminding Ixtlilxochitl of their near relationship, pledging the submission of all his allies, and promising to come personally to Tezcuco, on an appointed day, to swear the allegiance he had so long and unjustly withheld. The too lenient emperor, tired of war and bloodshed, granted the petition, raised the siege against the advice of all his lords, returned to Tezcuco, and disbanded his armies. Brasseur makes this campaign end in 1416; others in 1417. Ixtlilxochitl states that the campaign lasted four years, and that Tezozomoc had under his command 500,000 men.[VII-28]
TREACHERY OF TEZOZOMOC.
By this act Ixtlilxochitl sealed his fate. Some of his truest allies who had fought for glory and loyalty, understanding Tezozomoc's hypocrisy and deeming their labors thrown away, were disgusted at their emperor's ill-timed clemency and withdrew their support. Many more lords had undertaken the war with the expectation, in case of victory, of sharing among themselves the Tepanec dominions. The rank and file, with the lesser chieftains, had borne the toil and danger of a long campaign, and now that it was ended, were denied the spoils that belonged to them as victors. The discontent was loud and wide-spread, and Ixtlilxochitl's prestige outside of Tezcuco and one or two adjoining cities, was lost forever. The Tepanec king, without the slightest idea of fulfilling his pledges, fomented the spirit of mutiny by promising the lords as a reward of rebellion, what they had failed to obtain in loyal combat, new domains from the Tezcucan possessions, together with independence of imperial power. Another motive of hatred on the part of Tezozomoc toward Ixtlilxochitl is mentioned by Brasseur's documents as having come to the knowledge of the former king about this time. His son's wife, a near relative of the Tezcucan king, who had left her husband and Azcapuzalco for good reasons, was now found to be living in or near Tezcuco as the mistress of an Acolhua chief, thus degrading the honor of the Tepanec royal family.[VII-29]
DEATH OF IXTLILXOCHITL.
Having completed as secretly as possible his preparations for a renewal of the war, Tezozomoc announced his readiness to swear allegiance to his sovereign, and his intention to celebrate that act and the return of peace by grand festivities. As his age and the state of his health would not permit him, he said, to go to Tezcuco, he appointed a suitable location[VII-30] for the ceremonies and invited Ixtlilxochitl to be present with his son Nezahualcoyotl, accompanied only by unarmed attendants, for the Tepanecs had not yet recovered, he said, from their terror of the Acolhua soldiers. The emperor at first consented, although by this time he had no faith in the Tepanec monarch, and, abandoned in his capital by all his leading nobles, bitterly repented of his unwise course; but at the last moment he sent Prince Tecuiltecatl, his brother, or as some say his natural son, in his stead to make excuses for his absence, and try to have the ceremony postponed. The substitute was flayed alive on his arrival at Tenamatlac, and Tezozomoc, finding that the prey had temporarily escaped his trap, ordered his troops to march immediately on Tezcuco, entered the Acolhua domains on the day after the murder, and the following day surrounded the capital. The lords of Huexotla, Iztapalocan, and Coatepec,[VII-31] were the only ones to render aid to the emperor in this emergency. The city was gallantly defended by the small garrison for many days,[VII-32] but at last the emperor with Nezahualcoyotl and a few companions, by the advice of his lords, left the city at night and took refuge in the forest of Tzincanoztoc, where he soon learned that Toxpilli, chief of the Chimalpanec ward, had pronounced for Tezozomoc and opened the city to the enemy. A scene of carnage and plunder ensued, such of Ixtlilxochitl's partizans as survived fleeing to Huexotzinco and Tlascala. From his retreat at Tzincanoztoc the emperor sent to demand protection of the lord of Otompan, a man deeply indebted to him for honors in the last campaign; but his petition was denied, and his messenger, who was also his son or nephew, a famous general, was murdered, his body torn in pieces, and his nails strung on a cord for a necklace. By this time quite a company had gathered about the emperor, and the enemy had also ascertained his whereabouts. Aided by the natural strength of his position, he defended himself for many days, until, without food or hope of succor, he decided to strive for life no longer. The authorities differ widely in the details of his death, and the matter is not sufficiently important to warrant a repetition of all that has been said about it. Torquemada and Clavigero state that he was drawn out of his last retreat by promised favorable conditions of surrender, and was treacherously murdered; but most agree that at the last approach of the foe, a band of Chalcas and men of Otompan, he induced his son to conceal himself in a tree, turned alone upon the enemy, and fell covered with wounds. At the close of his last conversation with Nezahualcoyotl, he urged him to escape to his friends in Tlascala, always to deal leniently with his enemies, for he did not repent of his own mercy, though it had cost him so dear; he concluded by saying: "I leave to thee, my son, no other inheritance than thy bow and arrow; strive to acquire skill in their use, and let thy strong arm restore the kingdom of thy Chichimec ancestors."[VII-33] The emperor's death took place probably in 1419.[VII-34]