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The Mental World of Hernán Cortés

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2009

J. H. Elliott
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Cambridge
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So many books and articles have been devoted to the life and career of He´rnan Cortés that it may well seem presumptuous to add to their number. But there is still no satisfactory biography, and it is only quite recently that his writings—his ‘letters of relation’ to Charles V, his general correspondence, and his military and administrative directives—have been subjected to the close critical scrutiny which they deserve. In particular, Dr. Richard Konetzke has drawn attention to the constructive aspects of Cortés's career as the founder of a colonial society, while an Austrian historian, Dr. Viktor Frankl, has analysed with extraordinary ingenuity Cortés's idea of empire and his indebtedness to Spanish medieval traditions and ways of thought. Other important contributions have been made by Mexicans:Dr Manuel Alcalá, who has drawn an extended parallel between

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1967

References

page 41 note 1 Konetzke, R., ‘Hernán Cortés como poblador de la Nueva España’, Estudios Cortesianos (Madrid, 1948), pp. 341–81;Google ScholarFrankl, V., ‘Hernan Cortés y la traditión de las Siete Partidas’, Revista de Historia de América, 53-54 (1962) and ‘Imperio particular e imperio universal en las cartas de relatión de Hernán Cortés’, Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos (1963);Google ScholarAlcala, M., César y Cortés (Mexico, 1950);Google ScholarEulalia, Guzmán, Relaciones de Hernán Cortés a Carlos V sobre la invasión de Anáhuac (Mexico, 1958).Google Scholar The writings of Cortés have now been collected in a single volume by Mario Hernández, Sánchez-Barba, Hernán Cortés. Cartas y Documentos (Mexico, 1963,). All quotations in this article are drawn from this volume, cited as Cartas.Google Scholar

page 42 note 1 See Fernandez, M. Gimenez, Hernán Cortés y su revolutión comunera en la Nueva España (Seville, 1948), which attempts to draw a parallel between the revolt of Cortés and that of the Comuneros.Google Scholar

page 43 note 1 See Salvador de, Madariaga, Hernán Cortés (London, 1942), pp. 2224.Google Scholar

page 43 note 2 See Alcala, , César y Cortés, pp. 134-38, for examples of Latin quotations in Cortés's writings, and for the influence of Latin constructions on his style.Google Scholar

page 44 note 1 Cartas, p. 47.

page 44 note 2 ‘Cortés y la tradición de las Siete Partidas’, op. cit. The Partidas constitute vols. II-IV of Los Cödigos Españoles concordados y anotados (Madrid, 1848-1851).Google Scholar

page 44 note 3 Frankl, , op. cit., pp. 29-31.Google Scholar

page 45 note 1 Historia Verdadera, i (Mexico, 1944), p. 260.Google ScholarTranslated J. M. Cohen (London, 1963), p. 159.Google Scholar

page 45 note 2 Obras que Francisco Cervantes de Salazar a kecko, glosado, y traducido (Alcalá de Henares, 1546). ‘Diálogo de la dignidad del hombre’, f. 4.Google Scholar

page 45 note 3 Frankl, , ‘Imperio particular’, pp. 32-33.Google Scholar

page 45 note 4 La Celestina, ed. Val, M. Criado de and Trotter, G. D. (Madrid, 1958), p. 165.Google Scholar

page 45 note 5 Frankl, , ‘Imperio’, p. 19.Google Scholar

page 46 note 1 Celestina, p. 141, and see Guisasola, F. Castro, Observaciones sobre las fuentes literarias de La Celestina (Madrid, 1924), p. 33.Google Scholar

page 46 note 2 Cartas, p. 478; Siete Partidas, Partida I, tit. 1, ley xix.

page 46 note 3 Cedulario Cortesiano (Mexico, 1949), p. 14.Google Scholar

page 47 note 1 ‘Sumario de la Residencia tomada a Don Fernando Cortes’, Archivo Mexicano, i (Mexico, 1852), p. 64;Google ScholarFernández de, Oviedo, Historia General… de las Indias (Biblioteca de Autores Españoles), vol. 118 (Madrid, 1959), p. 149.Google Scholar The original quotation reads: ‘Si violandum est ius, regnandi gratia violandum est’ (Tranquilli, C. Suetoni, Divus Julius, ed. Butler, H. E. and Cary, M., Oxford, 1962, p. 14).Google Scholar That Cortés at least had a good stock of stories from classical history is shown by his apt allusion to the dispute between Marius and Sulla over the captured Jugurtha when his own captains were quarrelling over the captured Cuauhtémoc (Bernal, Diaz, Historia Verdadera, ii, p. 299).Google Scholar

page 47 note 2 Late fifteenth-century Extremadura, the home of so many conquistadores, deserves serious investigation. There is a pioneering article by Mario, Góngora, ‘Regimen señorial y rural en la Extremadura de la Orden de Santiago’, Jahrbuch für Geschichte von Staat … Latein-Amerikas, ii (1965).Google Scholar

page 48 note 1 Alonso, Maldonado, Hechos del Maestre de Alcántara Don Alonso de Monroy, ed. Moñino, A. Rodriguez (Madrid, 1935).Google Scholar For Cortés family relationships, see Orozco, F. Gomez de, ‘Cual era el linaje paterno de Cortés?’, Revista de Indias, 11 (1948), pp. 297306.Google Scholar

page 48 note 2 Maldonado, , p. 106; Cartas, p. 43.Google Scholar

page 49 note 1 Vol. i (Madrid, 1914), pp. 120-21.Google Scholar

page 49 note 2 Historia verdadera, ii, p. 67. For the idea of Fortune, see Patch, H. R., The Goddess Fortune in Medieval Literature (Harvard, 1927);CrossRefGoogle ScholarJoséAntonio, Maravall, El Mundo Social de la Celestina (Madrid, 1964),Google Scholar c. vii; Florence, Street, ‘The Allegory of Fortune … in … Juan de Mena’, Hispanic Review, 23 (1955). I am much indebted to Mrs Street for her advice on this subject.Google Scholar

page 49 note 3 Celestina, p. 175 (translated James Mabbe, ed. H. Warner Allen, London, n.d., p. 150).Google Scholar

page 49 note 4 ‘Clavaré quando me vea do no aya más que posea’. ‘Residencia’, i. p. 64.

page 50 note 1 Felix, Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini (Princeton, 1965), p. 41.Google Scholar

page 50 note 2 Cartas, p. 44.

page 50 note 3 Cartas, pp. 18, 41.

page 50 note 4 Cartas, p. 97.

page 50 note 5 Cartas, p. 52.

page 50 note 6 Cartas, p. 104. Cf. Frankl, , ‘Cortés y la Tradición’, p. 18.Google Scholar

page 50 note 7 Celestina, p. 39.

page 51 note 1 See Maravall, J. A., Los Factores de la Idea del Progreso en el Renacimiento Español (Madrid, 1963), pp. 109–31.Google ScholarCf. the Florentine ‘experientia, que rerum est magistra’ (Gilbert, , Machiavelli, p. 39).Google Scholar

page 51 note 2 Fernández de Oviedo, op. cit., vol. 120, p. 42.

page 51 note 3 ‘Cortés y la Traditión’.

page 51 note 4 Cartas, pp. 26–27; Cuevas, P. Mariano, Cartas y otros documentos de Hernán Cortés (Seville, 1915), p. 5.Google Scholar

page 51 note 5 E.g. Madariaga, Hernán Cortés.

page 52 note 1 Eulalia, Guzman, Relaciones, p. 223;Google ScholarWagner, Henry R., The Rise of Fernando Cortés (Berkeley, 1944), pp. 187–98.Google Scholar

page 52 note 2 Cartas, pp. 59-60, 68-69; Guzmán, , pp. 221-30, 276-81.Google Scholar

page 52 note 3 Guzmán, , p. 279.Google Scholar

page 53 note 1 Cartas, p. 71. Cf. Matthew 13:14 (‘Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive’).

page 53 note 2 Guzmán, , pp. 225-25.Google Scholar

page 53 note 3 Historia Verdadera, i, p. 288.

page 53 note 4 op. cit., vol. 120, pp. 245-47.

page 54 note 1 Cartels, p. 351 (Ordenanzas de buen gobierno, 1524).

page 54 note 2 Cartels, p. 397 (Memorial de servicios, 1528).

page 54 note 3 Maravall, J. A., ‘La Utopia politico-religiosa de los Franciscanos en Nueva España’, Estudios Americanos, 1 (1949), pp. 199227.Google Scholar For Cortés and the Franciscans, see Fidel de, Lejarza, ‘Franciscanismo de Cortés y Cortesianismo de los Franciscanos’, Missionalia Hispánica, 5 (1948), pp. 43-136.Google Scholar

page 54 note 4 Cartas, p. 25.

page 55 note 1 Cartas, pp. 238-39, 318.

page 55 note 2 Cartas, p. 25.

page 55 note 3 Cartas, p. 241.

page 55 note 4 Gerönimo de, Mendieta, Historia Eclesiástica Indiana (ed. Mexico, 1870), p. 606.Google Scholar

page 55 note 5 Cartas, pp. 320 and 482. For the evolution of Cortés's idea of empire, see Frankl, , ‘Imperio’.Google Scholar

page 56 note 1 Cartas, pp. 304, 460.

page 56 note 2 Cartas, p. 257.

page 56 note 3 Cartas, p. 468.

page 56 note 4 Ioanrus Dantisci poetae laureati carmina, ed. Stanislas, Skimina (Cracow, 1950), carmen xlix, lines 8590.Google Scholar For Dantiscus, see Mélia, A. Paz, ‘Elembajador polaco Juan Dantisco en la corte de Carlos V’, Boletin de la Academia Española, 11 and 12 (1924-1925).Google Scholar Dantiscus's diplomatic correspondence was published in Acta Tomiciana (12 vols., ed. S. Gorski, Posnan, 1855–1901), but there is no trace of the letters to or from Cortés.

page 57 note 1 Madariaga, , Cortés, p. 482;Google ScholarPedro de, Navarra, Diálogos de la preparatión de la muerte (Tolosa, 1565), f. 41.Google Scholar

page 57 note 2 Angel, Losada, ‘Hernán Cortés en la obra del cronista Sepúlveda’, Revista de Indias, 11 (1948), pp. 127–69.Google Scholar

page 57 note 3 Ramón, Iglesia, Cronhtas e Historiadores de la Conquista de México (Mexico, 1942), pp. 100103;Google ScholarWagner, H. R., ‘Francisco López de Gómara and his works’, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 58 (1948), pp. 263–82.Google Scholar

page 57 note 4 See above p. 45 n. 2.

page 57 note 5 For the legend of the burning of the ships, see especially Jardon, F. Soler, ‘Notas sobre la leyenda del incendio de las naves’, Revista de Indias, 11 (1948), pp. 537–59. Soler Jardón suspected that the legend of the burning originated in the desire to compare Cortés with classical heroes, but failed to find any reference earlier than the 1560s. If, as seems possible, Cervantes de Salazar originated the legend, at least in its written form, he reverted to fact and described the ships as being beached in his Crónica de la Nueva España, which he began writing some thirteen years after the publication of the dedication to Cortés.Google Scholar