Chichimecayotl

The Chichimecayotl were the Acolhua royal house of Tetzcoco, whose rulers claimed descent from the Chichimec leader Xolotl. Quinatzin, the first known king of Tetzcoco, transferred the seat of Chichimec power there from Tenayuca; around 1337 the Acolhua made it their capital.

His son Techotlalatzin, reigning from 1357 to 1409, adopted Nahuatl language and customs and built a small Acolhua domain within the orbit of Tezozomoc, the Tepanec ruler of Azcapotzalco, who overthrew the next king Ixtlilxochitl I in 1418. Ixtlilxochitl's son Nezahualcoyotl allied with the Mexica to defeat the Tepanecs in 1428 and made Tetzcoco a founding member of the Triple Alliance.

Nezahualcoyotl and his son Nezahualpilli made the city an intellectual center of the Aztec world. Spanish troops seized Tetzcoco in 1520 and used it as a base for the siege of Tenochtitlan, while the dynasty survived as colonial governors and landed nobles.