[2] He was the eldest legitimate son of Emperor Ahuitzotl[3] and may well have attended the last New Fire ceremony, marking the beginning of a new 52-year cycle in the Aztec calendar.

[7] Cuauhtémoc called for reinforcements from the countryside to aid the defense of Tenochtitlán, after eighty days of warfare against the Spanish.

Of all the Nahuas, only Tlatelolcas remained loyal, and the surviving Tenochcas looked for refuge in Tlatelolco, where even women took part in the battle.

Cuauhtémoc was captured on August 13, 1521, while fleeing Tenochtitlán by crossing Lake Texcoco with his wife, family, and friends.

Subsequently, however, when the booty found did not measure up to the Spaniards' expectations,[14] Cuauhtémoc was subjected to "torture by fire", whereby the soles of his bare feet were slowly broiled over red-hot coals, in an unsuccessful attempt to discover its whereabouts.

[15] On the statue to Cuauhtemoc, on the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City, there is a bas relief showing the Spaniards' torture of the emperor.

Cuauhtémoc, now baptized as Fernando Cuauhtémotzín, continued to hold his position under the Spanish, keeping the title of tlatoani, but he was no longer the sovereign ruler.

[18] While the expedition was stopped in the Chontal Maya capital of Itzamkanac, known as Acalan in Nahuatl, Cortés had Cuauhtémoc executed for allegedly conspiring to kill him and the other Spaniards.

[19] According to Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a conquistador serving under Cortés who recorded his experiences in his book The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, the supposed plot was revealed by two men, named Tapia and Juan Velásquez.

May God demand justice from you, as it was taken from me when I entrusted myself to you in my city of Mexico!Díaz wrote that afterwards, Cortés suffered from insomnia because of guilt and badly injured himself while he was wandering at night.

[20] Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxóchitl, a castizo historian and descendant of Coanacoch, wrote an account of the executions in the 17th century partly based on Texcocan oral tradition.

[23][24] A scholarly study of the controversy was published in 2011 and argued that the available data suggests that the grave is an elaborate hoax prepared by a local of Ichcateopan as a way of generating publicity, and that subsequently supported by Mexican nationalists such as Guzman who wished to use the find for political purposes.

[25] Cuauhtemoc is the embodiment of indigenist nationalism in Mexico, being the only Aztec emperor who survived the conquest by the Spanish Empire (and their native allies).

He is honored by a monument on the Paseo de la Reforma, his face has appeared on Mexican coins, banknotes, and he is celebrated in paintings, music, and popular culture.

[citation needed] Cuauhtémoc, in the name Guatemoc, is portrayed sympathetically in the adventure novel Montezuma's Daughter, by H. Rider Haggard.