Conquistador Juan Ruíz de Alanís and His Connection to the Last Mexica Princess (Part 2 of 2)

Steven Perez
Jun 6
8 min read

Updated: Jul 16

Fernando Cortés returned to Mexico City from Honduras in 1526 and the political tides turned in his favor. The officials who were responsible for executing his cousin Rodrigo de Paz were imprisoned in huge wooden cages, where they became the object of public ridicule and abuse. Around this time, 1525-1530, Juan Ruiz de Alanís married Leonor de Castañeda, as their first son Antonio Ruiz de Castañeda was born around 1530. Juan Ruiz died relatively young, albeit a natural death (Díaz del Castillo, p. 232), sometime before 1540. The encomienda of Tehuacán passed to his widow and young children. By 1540, Leonor de Castañeda had already remarried, as her second husband Alonso de Castillo Maldonado filed a petition with the Royal Council of the Indies in early 1540 seeking legal authority over the encomienda. Castillo Maldonado was one of only four survivors of the Narváez expedition to Florida, spending eight years wandering what is now the south-western United States before returning to Mexico in 1536.

In the petition, Castillo Maldonado asked the king to grant him the encomienda for the services he had rendered during the Florida expedition, arguing that should his wife Leonor predecease him, the encomienda would pass to her children from her first marriage, leaving him with no means to sustain himself in the colony. The Royal Council of the Indies ruled that should his wife predecease him, Castillo Maldonado should receive one-fourth of the encomienda and the children from the first marriage the other one-fourth (recall that Juan Ruiz had received only half of the encomienda).

On 26 November 1546, Hernán Rodríguez Belloso[i] filed a petition with the royal audiencia of New Spain as guardian and conservator of the minor children of Juan Ruiz de Alanís, asking that they award Antonio Ruiz de Castañeda the entire one-half of the encomienda. He provided as proof the decree from Cortés granting Ruiz the encomienda. Castillo Maldonado filed a counter-petition asking for the audiencia to award no more than a quarter of the encomienda to the minor children of Juan Ruiz. The outcome of the lawsuit is unknown. It is likely that Castillo Maldonado predeceased Leonor de Castañeda, which negated the dispute. As we know from the story of Alonso de Benavides (see this blog post), the Tehuacán encomienda passed to Antonio Ruiz de Castañeda until it was rescinded and restored to the Spanish Crown in 1573.

One wonders if the strength of the bonds that were formed among the four survivors of the Narváez expedition through their shared ordeal fostered a life-long friendship. Otherwise, it seems a remarkable coincidence that Antonio’s widowed mother Leonor de Castañeda and his future mother-in-law, María de la Torre (see this blog post) each married a survivor of the Narváez expedition. I suspect that the two families were brought together by the friendship between Castillo Maldonado and Dorantes de Carranza, and they may have even arranged or facilitated the marriage between Antonio Ruiz de Castañeda and Antonia de Benavides.

Antonio’s younger sister María de Castañeda managed to secure an even more illustrious match, marrying Juan de Andrada Moctezuma, the eldest son of Princess Tecuichpotzin Moctezuma (she took the Spanish name Isabel after the conquest), who herself was the legitimate and only heir of the last Mexica (or Aztec) Emperor, Moctezuma. Isabel Moctezuma had received as her dowry the encomienda of Tacuba, the wealthiest of all the encomiendas of New Spain. The encomienda should have passed to her eldest son and heir, Juan de Andrada Moctezuma, but he ended up controlling only one-sixth of it, having lost out to the family of his stepfather Juan Cano Saavedra.

The panel shows Isabel Moctezuma pointing to her father, with her brother Pedro seated behind.

Codex Cozcatzin, fol. 1v, circa 1572

Bibliothèque Nationale de France

Around 1567, Juan de Andrada Moctezuma traveled to Seville, Spain under the pretext of having to deal with lawsuits, but in reality, it was to avoid married life! A royal decree from King Philip II dated 7 June 1571 ordered Juan to return to his wife María de Castañeda in New Spain. By 1573, Juan was still in Seville and had racked up so many debts that he was in prison. The king ordered officials in New Spain to garnish his encomienda tributes to pay off his debts so that he could be released and return to his wife. In 1574, Juan was still in prison when the king issued another decree asking for the officials of the Casa de Contratación to take a declaration from Juan to determine if he wanted his wife to come to live with him in Spain, and if so, to release him. It appears he never returned to New Spain, dying in Seville in 1576 or 1577, and leaving behind his widow and five children.

In 1580, María de Castañeda appealed to King Philip II for an annual stipend from the royal treasury given her status as the daughter of conquistador Juan Ruiz de Alanís and the widow of Juan de Andrada Moctezuma, son of the conquistador Pedro Gallego de Andrada and Isabel Moctezuma. She explained that the stipend from the one-sixth part of the encomienda of Tacuba provided her son Pedro de Andrada Moctezuma with an annual stipend of only 500 pesos, which was not sufficient to support a family of their station. In a royal decree dated 18 July 1580, the king granted her an annual stipend of 400 gold pesos for the rest of her life.

Real cédula al Virrey de Nueva España... a instancias de María de Castañeda

18 July 1580

Archivo General de Indias

Mexico, 1091, L. 9, F. 218R

....Por parte de Doña

María de Castañeda viuda mujer que fue

de Don Juan de Andrada Moctezuma nos ha

sido fecha relación que es hija legítima de

Juan Ruiz de Alanís uno de los que me-

jor nos sirvieron en esa tierra al tiempo

que se conquistó y Pedro Gallego de Andrada

padre del dicho Don Juan de Andrada su ma-

rido nos sirvió asimismo en ella el cual

fue casado y velado con Doña Isabel Mocte-

zuma, hija mayor legítima y heredera

universal de Moctezuma y por falleci-

miento del dicho Don Juan de Andrada su marido

quedó con necesidad…

...On behalf of Doña

María de Castañeda, widow of

Don Juan de Andrada Montezuma, it has

been reported to us that she is the legitimate daughter

of Juan Ruiz de Alanís, one of those who

served us best in that land at the time

it was conquered, and that Pedro Gallego de Andrada

father of the said Don Juan de Andrada, her husband,

also served us there. He was married and wed to Doña Isabel

Moctezuma, the eldest legitimate daughter and universal

heir of Moctezuma. Upon the death of the said Don Juan de Andrada,

her husband, she was left in need...

The Ruiz de Castañeda family, linked through kinship to the descendants of Emperor Moctezuma, would have enjoyed a privileged place among the Mexico City elite. Their social circles would have likely included the viceroys, oidores and other officials of the royal audiencia as well as the families who dominated the industries extracting wealth from the colony for the benefit of Spain. There was also a natural connection between the Ruiz de Castañeda and Cortés families through shared relationships with Moctezuma’s descendants. Isabel Moctezuma’s and Fernando Cortés’ illegitimate daughter Leonor de Cortés Moctezuma was raised in the household of Juan Gutiérrez Altamirano, a cousin of Fernando Cortés. And as we have already seen, Isabel de Moctezuma’s descendants were related to the Ruiz de Castañeda family. It’s unsurprising that this nexus of relationships led Antonio de Castañeda’s son Luis de la Torre to marry Juana Altamirano, a relative of Fernando Cortés (her first cousin, twice removed).

Here is the genealogy of the family (based on all sources listed in this blog series):

Generation I

Juan Ruiz, resident of Alanís, Seville, Spain

(b. unknown)

(m. unknown)

(d. unknown)

Juana Ruiz, resident of Alanís, Seville, Spain

(b. unknown)

(m. unknown)

(d. unknown)

Generation II

A. Juan Ruiz de Alanís, Conquistador of Mexico City

(b. about 1497, Alanís, Seville, Spain)

(m. about 1525-1530, Mexico City)

(d. before 1540)

Leonor de Castañeda

(b. unknown)

(m2. about 1537-1539)

(d. unknown, but before February 1571)

Alonso de Castillo Maldonado, Conquistador of Mexico City

(b. unknown)

(d. unknown)

*Leonor and Alonso had a daughter, Aldonza, baptized 25 April 1542 in Mexico City

Generation III

A1. Antonio Ruiz de Castañeda

(b. about 1530, Mexico City)

(m. about 1550, Mexico City)

(d. unknown)

Antonia de Benavides (aka Antonia de la Torre)

(b. about 1530-1535, Mexico City)

(d. unknown)

A2. María de Castañeda

(b. about 1530-1535, Mexico City)

(m. about 1545-1550, Mexico City)

(d. unknown)

Juan de Andrada Moctezuma, son of Princess Isabel de Moctezuma

(b. about 1525-1530, Mexico City)

(d. about 1576-1577, Seville, Spain)

Generation IV

A1a. Juan de Castañeda Benavides

(c. 4 September 1552, Mexico City)

(d. unknown)

A1b. Alonso de Benavides

(b. unknown)

(d. unknown)

A1c. Luis de la Torre

(c. 11 January 1561, Mexico City)

(m. about 1580-90)

(d. about November 1601, Mexico City)

Juana Altamirano

(b. about 1560-1565, Mexico City)

(d. unknown)

A1d. Cristóbal Ruiz de Castañeda

(b. unknown)

(d. unknown)

A2a. Pedro de Andrada Moctezuma

(b. about 1550, Mexico City)

(d. unknown)

Luisa de Peñas

(b. unknown)

(d. unknown)

A2b. Juan de Andrada Moctezuma

(b. about 1552-1555, Mexico City)

(d. unknown)

Beatriz Osorio

(b. unknown)

(d. unknown)

A2c. Felipe de Andrada Moctezuma

(b. about 1552-1555, Mexico City)

(d. unknown)

A2d. Hernando (aka Fernando) de Andrada Moctezuma

(c. 23 May 1557, Mexico City)

*Padrinos: Juan Cano, Gerónimo de Medina, Antonio Ruiz, Antonia de la Torre, María de Meneses (wife of Gerónimo de Meneses)

(m. unknown)

(d. unknown)

Mariana Garcerán

(b. Barcelona, Spain)

(d. unknown)

A2e. María de Andrada Moctezuma

(b. about 1560-1565, Mexico City)

(m. unknown)

(d. unknown)

A2f. Isabel de Castañeda Moctezuma (aka Isabel de Andrada)

(b. about 1565-1570, Mexico City)

(m. 27 May 1586, Mexico City)

(d. unknown)

Alonso Muñoz

(b. about 1555-1560, Mexico City)

(d. unknown)

[i] According to Icaza, Rodríguez Belloso was from Mérida, having arrived in New Spain about 1545. He was the legitimate son of Juan Belloso, alcalde of Castellanoi and Leonor Rodríguez de Figueroa, hija d’algo. It is unclear what relationship he had with Juan Ruiz de Alanís or Leonor de Castañeda.

Sources:

The Narváez Expedition

https://www.texascounties.net/articles/discovery-of-texas/narvaezexpedition.htm

Donald E. Chipman, Moctezuma’s Children: Aztec Royalty Under Spanish Rule, 1520-1700. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005).

Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, published by Genaro García in Mexico, translated and published by Alfred Percival Maudslay (London: Hakluyt Society, 1908).

Raquel Sagaón Infante, “Testamento de Isabel Moctezuma,” Anuario Mexicano de Historia del Derecho, Nº 10, 1998, 753-760. Available at: http://historico.juridicas.unam.mx/publica/librev/rev/hisder/cont/10/cnt/cnt35.pdf

Hugh Thomas, Who’s Who of the Conquistadors (London: Cassell, 2000).

Catálogo de Protocolos del Archivo General de Notarias de la Ciuded de México, “Obligación de Pago,” Notaría 374, Volumen 2463, Legajo 3, Ficha 315, fol. 113v, 7 September 1594. Names Antonia de Benavides as mother of Cristóbal Ruiz de Castaneda (Castañeda).

Catálogo de Protocolos del Archivo General de Notarias de la Ciuded de México, “Finiquito,” Notaría 497, Volumen 3357, Ficha 248, fol. 285/286v, 19 November 1601. Names Juana de Altamirano as widow of Luis de la Torre.

Manuscripts from the Portal de los Archivos Españoles

https://pares.cultura.gob.es/inicio.html

Archivo General de las Indias

Encomienda de Teguacán en Alonso Castillo Maldonado

Patronato, 275, R. 39

https://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/127711?nm

Informaciones y memoriales de los bisnietos de Moctezuma

Patronato, 245, R. 11

https://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/126599?nm

Real cédula ordenando a Juan de Andrada Moctezuma...

Mexico,1090, L. 6, F. 313V-314R

https://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/12650198?nm