Tenochcatl

The Tenochcatl were the ruling line of the Mexica, or Tenochca, who built Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco in 1325. Their name remembers Tenoch, who led the Mexica south from Aztlán and after whom the city was named, though sources disagree on whether he was a historical ruler or a later myth.

After his death the elders elected Acamapichtli, son of the Mexica leader Opochtli Iztahuatzin and the Culhua princess Atotoztli. He ruled from about 1375 as the first tlatoani, his city then a tributary of the Tepanec power Azcapotzalco.

His later successor Itzcoatl forged the Triple Alliance with Tetzcoco and Tlacopan in 1427 and 1428, shaking off that overlordship, and the Tenochca tlatoque went on to lead the Aztec Empire. The line ended in the Spanish siege and destruction of Tenochtitlan in 1521, with the last dynastic tlatoani Cuauhtémoc put to death a few years later.