Tlacaelel

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Tlacaelel (1397 – 1487) was the nephew of Itzcoatl (1427 – 1440) and brother of Moctezuma Ilhuicamina (1440 – 1469), the first and second Mexica ("Aztec") emperors.

Tlacaelel incorporated the Toltec imperial ideology as part of the ruling ethos of the Mexica and married Aztec nobles to Toltec aristocrats from Cholula in order to provide his people with a distinguished lineage. During the reign of his brother Moctezuma, Tlacaelel ordered the destruction of all histories that noted the obscure origins of the Mexica-Aztecs.

Throughout his public career, the inexorable Prime Minister -in Nahuatl language Cihuacoatl- emphasized the cult of Huitzilopochtli and the role of the Aztecs as this deity's chosen people. When he dedicated the seventh reconstruction of the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan, Tlacaelel had brought his nation to the height of its power. The dedication occurred in 1484 and was celebrated with the sacrifice of twenty thousand victims. After Tlacaelel's death in 1487, the Mexica Empire continued to expand north into the Gran Chichimeca and south toward the Maya lands.