Tlacaelel I
Tlacaelel shaped the Aztec empire for sixty years without ever becoming its ruler. Born in 1397, he was a son of the Mexica ruler Huitzilihuitl and a nephew of Itzcoatl, and served four successive rulers as cihuacoatl — an office usually rendered as the deputy or internal administrator, and which under him became the effective centre of the state. His moment came in 1427, when the Tepanec of Azcapotzalco, who had dominated Tenochtitlan for a century, turned on it. Much of the Mexica nobility wanted to submit. Tlacaelel is credited with holding the council to war and with carrying the negotiation that produced the alliance with Texcoco and Tlacopan; Azcapotzalco was destroyed in 1428. He then reordered the society that had won. Conquered land was distributed to the warrior nobility rather than to the calpulli communities, which produced a hereditary aristocracy where there had been none, and rank became attainable through captives taken in battle. He is credited with ordering the burning of the existing painted histories and the composition of new ones, in which the Mexica appear as heirs of the Toltecs and their patron Huitzilopochtli is elevated to the level of the great creator gods. The theology that followed made war a religious obligation: the sun required human hearts to continue rising, and captives supplied them. The flower wars — ritualised campaigns fought against Tlaxcala and others expressly to take prisoners — are attributed to him. He declined the throne when it was offered. He died around 1487. His descendants held the office after him until the Spanish conquest.
- Lived: 1398 CE – 1480 CE
- Nationality: Aztec
- Roles: diplomat, statesman
