Nezahualcóyotl

Nezahualcoyotl
Tlatoani of Texcoco
Bronze casting done of Nezahualcoyotl by Jesús Fructuoso Contreras in the Garden of the Triple Alliance located in the historic center of Mexico City.
Reign	1429–1472
Predecessor	Ixtlilxochitl I
Successor	Nezahualpilli
Born	April 28, 1402 Texcoco
Died	June 4, 1472 (aged 70) Texcoco
Father	Ixtlilxochitl I
Mother	Matlalcihuatzin

April 28, 1402

June 4, 1472 (aged 70)

Nezahualcoyotl (Classical Nahuatl: Nezahualcoyōtl, Spanish pronunciation: [nesawaɬˈkojoːtɬ], modern Nahuatl pronunciation ), meaning "Coyote in fast" or "Coyote who Fasts") (April 28, 1402 – June 4, 1472) was a philosopher, warrior, architect, poet and ruler (tlatoani) of the city-state of Texcoco in pre-Columbian era Mexico. Unlike other high-profile Mexican figures from the century preceding Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Nezahualcoyotl was not Mexica; his people were the Acolhua, another Nahuan people settled in the eastern part of the Valley of Mexico, settling on the eastern side of Lake Texcoco.

He is best remembered for his poetry, but according to accounts by his descendants and biographers, Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxóchitl and Juan Bautista Pomar, he had an experience of an "Unknown, Unknowable Lord of Everywhere" to whom he built an entirely empty temple in which no blood sacrifices of any kind were allowed — not even those of animals. However, he allowed human sacrifices to continue in his other temples.

Born as Nezahualcoyotly Acolmiztli (Fasted Coyote, Arm of a Lion), he was the son of Ixtlilxochitl I and Matlalcihuatzin, the daughter of Huitzilihuitl. Though born heir to a throne, his youth was not marked by princely luxury. His father had set Texcoco against the powerful city of Azcapotzalco, ruled by the Tepanec. In 1418, when the young prince was fifteen, his father was assassinated.