La Noche Triste (1520): The Spanish Flight from Tenochtitlan

La Noche Triste (“the Sad Night”) was the night of 30 June to 1 July 1520, when the Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés and their Indigenous allies fled Tenochtitlan, the Aztec (Mexica) capital, after weeks of fighting. Caught on the Tlacopan causeway by Mexica warriors in canoes, they lost hundreds of Spaniards, thousands of allies and most of the gold they had gathered. It was the worst defeat the Spaniards suffered in the conquest of Mexico.

Background: trapped in the city

Cortés had entered Tenochtitlan peacefully in November 1519 and soon held its ruler, Moctezuma II, as a captive. In May 1520, while Cortés was on the coast fighting the rival Spanish force of Pánfilo de Narváez, his deputy Pedro de Alvarado attacked Mexica nobles during the festival of Toxcatl and killed many of them. The city rose in revolt and besieged the Spaniards in the palace of Axayacatl.

Cortés returned on 24 June 1520 with the men he had taken over from Narváez, bringing the Spanish force to well over 1,000. But fighting resumed at once. The Mexica chose a new ruler, Cuitláhuac, and attacked the palace day after day. Spanish sorties to destroy the great temple and clear the streets brought only temporary relief. In late June Moctezuma died in Spanish custody, as described in Death of Moctezuma II, and the Spaniards ran short of food, water and gunpowder.

The plan to escape

Cortés and his captains debated what to do. Some wanted to fight on, others to negotiate, but with Moctezuma dead there was no longer any figure through whom they could bargain. A soldier named Botello, who was reputed to be an astrologer, is said to have advised that they leave on that particular night.

Cortés decided to leave the city at night. Tenochtitlan was an island linked to the mainland by causeways, which were cut by gaps for canals; the bridges over these gaps had been removed. The shortest route was the western causeway to Tlacopan (Tacuba), about 3 kilometres long. The Spaniards built a portable wooden bridge to span the gaps.

The column was organised with a vanguard under Gonzalo de Sandoval, Cortés in the centre with the main body, and a rearguard under Pedro de Alvarado and Juan Velázquez de León. Tlaxcalan warriors and porters marched with them, along with prisoners including some of Moctezuma’s children and the lord Cacama of Texcoco. The royal fifth of the treasure was loaded on horses, and soldiers were allowed to take what gold they wished; many of Narváez’s newly arrived men filled their clothes with it.

The night on the causeway

The column set out near midnight, in rain. According to the Florentine Codex, the Mexica account of the conquest, a woman drawing water saw the Spaniards and raised the alarm, and a priest on a temple called the warriors to arms. Drums sounded, and soon canoes filled the lake on both sides of the causeway.

The portable bridge was placed over the first gap but became stuck and could not be moved forward. At the following gaps, men and horses were pushed into the water by the crowd behind them. Many drowned, especially those weighed down by armour and gold. Mexica warriors attacked from canoes with arrows, spears and clubs, and captured many Spaniards alive. Bodies, baggage, horses and cannon filled one of the canals until others could cross over them.

The rearguard suffered worst. Juan Velázquez de León was killed, along with many of the men behind him. A later legend tells that Pedro de Alvarado escaped by vaulting across a canal with his lance, a feat remembered in the place name Puente de Alvarado. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, who was there, doubted the story.

Losses

No precise figures exist. Cortés, writing to the king, admitted about 150 Spaniards and around 2,000 allies killed. Other early accounts give far higher figures for the Spaniards, from about 400 to more than 800, and some historians suggest that, with Narváez’s men, more than half the Spanish force was lost. Thousands of Tlaxcalans and other allies died, as did several of the noble prisoners. Most of the horses, all the artillery and nearly all the gold were lost.

Spanish chroniclers blamed the scale of the disaster partly on greed, noting that men who carried the most gold were among the first to drown. Others pointed to poor discipline in the dark and the narrowness of the causeway, which prevented the horsemen from fighting effectively.

Among the survivors were Cortés, Alvarado, Sandoval, the interpreter Malintzin and Gerónimo de Aguilar.

After the Sad Night

At dawn the survivors gathered at Tlacopan and Popotla on the western shore. Tradition says that Cortés sat beneath an ahuehuete (Montezuma cypress) at Popotla and wept for his dead men. The trunk of an old tree linked to this story still stands in Mexico City, though it was badly damaged by fire in the late 20th century. In 2021 the city government renamed it the Árbol de la Noche Victoriosa, the “Tree of the Victorious Night”, reflecting the Mexica perspective.

The Spaniards then made a long retreat around the northern lakes, harassed by Mexica forces. On 7 July 1520, at the Battle of Otumba, they faced a large Mexica army and survived after a cavalry charge killed or captured its commander. A few days later they reached Tlaxcala, whose leaders chose to keep the alliance and gave them shelter.

Key people

• Hernán Cortés (1485-1547): Spanish commander who ordered and led the retreat.
• Pedro de Alvarado (c. 1485-1541): Commander of the rearguard, whose Toxcatl massacre had sparked the uprising.
• Juan Velázquez de León: Spanish captain killed in the rearguard.
• Cuitláhuac (died 1520): New Mexica ruler, under whom the Spaniards were driven out.

Consequences

For the Mexica, the night was a decisive victory that freed their city. They cleared the bodies from the canals, recovered weapons and some of the treasure, and sacrificed many of the captured Spaniards and their allies in the temples. The Florentine Codex records that the Mexica collected the abandoned goods, including gold, armour and cannon, from the water.

Many historians have asked why the Mexica did not destroy the fleeing column completely. Part of the answer lies in Mesoamerican warfare, which valued taking captives over killing enemies on the field. The new ruler Cuitláhuac also needed time to confirm his authority, honour the dead and rebuild the city’s defences. His efforts to win over Tlaxcala and other states failed. But within months smallpox struck Tenochtitlan, killing Cuitláhuac and many others. Cortés, helped by Tlaxcala and new reinforcements from the Caribbean, rebuilt his army and returned to besiege the city in 1521.

Timeline

• 1520, May: The Toxcatl massacre provokes a Mexica uprising.
• 1520, 24 June: Cortés returns to Tenochtitlan.
• 1520, late June: Moctezuma dies in Spanish custody.
• 1520, 30 June - 1 July: The Spaniards and their allies flee along the Tlacopan causeway.
• 1520, 7 July: The Spaniards survive the Battle of Otumba.
• 1520, July: The survivors reach Tlaxcala.

Why it matters

La Noche Triste nearly ended the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and showed that the Mexica could defeat the Spaniards in their own city. Its name still divides perspectives: a sad night for the conquerors, a night of victory for the defenders of Tenochtitlan.