¿Quiénes son los descendientes de Moctezuma II?

The line did not end in 1521. Moctezuma II had many wives and concubines, and estimates of how many children he fathered run as high as 150 — a figure that has never been confirmed. But the names of the most notable descendants are documented, and the lineage continues today, mostly in Spain.

Isabel de Moctezuma. His most important daughter was Tecuichpo Ixcaxóchitl, baptised Isabel de Moctezuma. She married three Spaniards and had six children, plus a daughter by Hernán Cortés whom he never formally recognised. She was treated as the legitimate heir of Moctezuma, and that recognition is why the Spanish Crown later granted her descendants the county of Miravalle.

A wedding present that became a landmark. On marrying Alonso de Grado, Isabel received the encomienda of Tacuba — land that in time became the Hacienda de los Morales, today one of the oldest surviving buildings in Polanco and a working restaurant.

The male line. Tlacahuepantzin Yohualicahuacatzin, baptised Pedro de Moctezuma, was the principal son. One of Pedro's sons was taken to Spain on the orders of Philip II to marry a Spanish noblewoman, Francisca de la Cueva y Valenzuela, and from that point the descendants were born on Spanish soil.

Where the titles sit now. The counts of Miravalle and the dukes of Atrisco both descend from Moctezuma. María del Carmen Enríquez de Luna y del Mazo held the county of Miravalle until her death in November 2014, and the title passed to her eldest daughter. The dukedom of Atrisco was granted in 2004 to Adelaida Barón Carral, its thirteenth holder.

Where to see the story in the city. The Templo Mayor museum, behind the cathedral, and the Sala Mexica of the National Museum of Anthropology.