November 25, 1520

Cuauhtémoc

Cuitláhuac dies of smallpox and Cuauhtémoc’s wartime succession begins

A Nahua annal says Cuitláhuac died while Cortés's forces were still in Tlaxcala — not while they were besieging the capital.

A death at the end of Quecholli

The Codex Aubin places Cuitláhuac's death in 1520, at the end of the Mexica month Quecholli. Patrick Johansson's specialist calendar correlation converts that entry to 3 December, rather than the 25 November of older chronologies.

The annal says Cuitláhuac died of smallpox while the Spaniards were in Tlaxcala, and credits him with 80 days of rule — a round number Johansson cautions may be symbolic or approximate.

Other chronologies give 25 or 28 November, and other scholarship says cautiously late November or early December.

Leading before being installed

Cuauhtémoc succeeded Cuitláhuac as the Mexica wartime leader, sought allies and set about strengthening the city.

But the Codex Aubin places his formal installation as the eleventh tlatoani 80 days after Cuitláhuac's death, during the nemontemi days. Succession in practice and formal investiture were not the same moment.

An early post-conquest account says that once Cuauhtémoc was ruling, he sent messengers offering concessions and seeking support against Cortés.

What the sources do not settle

Cuauhtémoc was a son of Ahuítzotl and a Tlatelolca noblewoman, but he did not inherit automatically. Mexica succession involved selection among eligible royal nobles rather than father-to-son primogeniture.

His age is uncertain. Bernal Díaz estimated about 25 or 26, while modern reconstructions sometimes place him in his late teens or early twenties.

Sources also differ over whether to call him Moctezuma's cousin or his nephew, reflecting conflicting genealogies and terminology.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at ~1520-12-03.

What the sources leave uncertain

The precise European-calendar date is disputed. Older chronologies give 25 or 28 November, while the Codex Aubin’s end-of-Quecholli notation has been correlated to 3 December; other scholarship cautiously says late November or early December.
Succession in practice and formal investiture were not necessarily simultaneous. A specialist reading of the Codex Aubin places Cuauhtémoc’s installation during nemontemi, 80 days after Cuitláhuac’s death.
Cuauhtémoc’s birth date and age are uncertain. Bernal Díaz estimated about 25–26, while modern reconstructions sometimes place him in his late teens or early twenties.
Sources differ over whether to describe Cuauhtémoc as Moctezuma’s cousin or nephew, reflecting conflicting genealogies and terminology.