Quetzalcoatl

Literally “Plumed” or “Feathered Serpent,” the patron god of the city of Cholula and one of the major gods in several Mesoamerican pantheons.

Most often portrayed as a mixture of serpent and bird, Quetzalcoatl was prominent in Mesoamerican pantheons as far back as the Olmecs, and a temple dedicated to this god at Teotihuacan suggests that his cult in the central Mexican region dates back to at least the third century A. D. In his aspect as wind, he is referred to as Ehecatl. According to many Mesoamerican creation accounts, it was he, along with Tezcatlipoca, who rescued the bones of the people from the underworld after the previous extinction of all life on earth, thereby creating the present race of humanity. Other accounts portray these two gods as adversaries. Quetzalcoatl was patron of rulers, priests, and merchants, inventor of agriculture and writing, as well as patron of the city of Cholula, which was to become the main pilgrimage center for devotees of this god during the late postclassical period.

Sixteenth-century European documents tend to conflate the god Quetzalcoatl with the historical Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, a notably pacifist king of the Toltecs. It is possibly because of this conflation that Spanish accounts of Aztec religion tend to portray the god Quetzalcoatl as averse to bloodshed. This does not, in fact, seem to have been the case, because his priests participated in the sacrificial rites of most festivals in Tenochtitlan, including the bloody days-long dedication of the great temple to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc during the reign of Ahuitzotl. Earlier generations of historians repeated the tale told in Spanish chronicles that the Aztecs, or at least Moctezuma II, believed that Hernan Cortes or one of his men was Quetzalcoatl incarnate and that this was one of the reasons for the invaders’ easy entry into Tenochtitlan and subsequent imprisonment of its great speaker. However, historians tend to put this theory far down the list of possible explanations for the Aztecs’ defeat. If nothing else, any belief that Cortes was indeed that (or any other) god would have been called into question by the time the Spaniards reached Tenochtitlan, having slaughtered many of the inhabitants of Quetzalcoatl’s sacred city of Cholula along the march from the coast.

Further reading: Alfredo Lopez Austin, et al., “The Temple of Quetzalcoatl at Teotihuacan,” Ancient Mesoamerica 2 (1991): 93-105; Nigel Davies, The Aztec Empire: The Toltec Resurgence (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987); Mary Miller and Karl Taube, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion (London: Thames & Hudson, 1993); William M. Ringle, et al., “The Return of Quetzalcoatl: Evidence for the Spread of a World Religion during the Epiclassic Period,” Ancient Mesoamerica 9 (1998): 183-232.

—Marie A. Kelleher

Ralegh, Sir Walter (Raleigh) (1552?-1618) explorer, colonizer

The adventurer, poet, and close associate of Queen Elizabeth I whose efforts to establish English settlements along the Atlantic coasts of North and South America failed and led to his execution.

Early in his life, perhaps when he was as young as 15, Ralegh joined a group of English soldiers who took it upon themselves to fight in France to help persecuted Huguenots there. After his return he enrolled at Oriel College, Oxford, but took no degree and three years later was studying law at the Middle Temple, one of the Inns of Court in London (and a place inhabited by, among others, Richard Hakluyt the Elder). He later rose to prominence from his actions during the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland when he, along with his half brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, led devastating raids against Irish Catholics. When he returned to England, Queen Elizabeth became interested in him and in the early 1580s gave him a patent for territory along the east coast of North America. In 1584 Ralegh led an expedition across the Atlantic and sailed along the coast from present-day Florida to the Carolinas. In honor of his patroness, he named the territory Virginia. In 1585 he led another expedition and left a party of English colonists at Roanoke, although the colony failed and the colonists could not be found when the English came to look for them in 1588, after the defeat of the Spanish Armada made transatlantic voyages safer. In addition to his disappointment in America, Ralegh also fell out of favor with the queen when he fell in love with Elizabeth (Bess) Throckmorton, daughter of Elizabeth’s late ambassador to Paris and herself an attendant of the queen. She was possibly pregnant when they married in secret, and the queen was so furious when she found out about their relationship that Ralegh lost his standing in court.

Despite these shortcomings, he had the support of Elizabeth for a venture to Guiana, along the northern coast of South America, in 1595. He led an expedition up the Orinoco River and returned to England with high hopes for a more sustained expedition. Like other promoters of colonization, he claimed religious motives first. In a pamphlet he apparently wrote, known as “Of the Voyage for Guiana” and probably written in 1596, Ralegh noted that it was an “honorable” venture because English success in Guiana would mean that “infinite numbers of souls may be brought from their idolatry, bloody sacrifices, ignorance, and incivility to the worshiping of the true God[.]” Victory for England also would mean victory for the Protestant cause, a campaign dear to the heart of the queen. As Ralegh put it, conversion to Protestant religion would free Indians “from the intolerable tyranny of the Spaniards whereunto they are already or likely in short space to be subjected, unless her Majesty or some other christian prince do speedily assist and protect them.” Such a development would stop the Spanish from boasting “of their great adventures for the propagation of the gospel” and thus add to the reputation of Elizabeth herself “upon the earth to all posterity[.]” Ralegh also added that establishing a colony in Guiana would enable the English to gain access to gold, silver, pearls, and precious stones. Through Guiana they might also reach Peru and other territory then under Spanish control. Finally, an English presence in Guiana would thwart any further Spanish designs on England because it would force the enemy to maintain a military presence there and thus lessen their force elsewhere.

However, Guiana became a disaster for Ralegh. The publication of his book entitled The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful Empire of Guiana in 1596 allowed Ralegh to become the acknowledged leader of an adventure crucial to the English state, yet enthusiasm did not translate into success. Although he had proven himself a superb military commander during English attacks on Cadiz in 1596 and in the Azores in 1597, support for his Guiana venture faded when Elizabeth died in 1603. Upon her death he lost his property and, accused of a

Sir Walter Ralegh (Library of Congress)

Plot to murder King James I, was jailed in the Tower of London along with his family. He remained there for 13 years. During that time he wrote his massive History of the World.

When he got out of the Tower in 1616 he once again led a mission to Guiana, but this mission proved more disastrous than any other in his life. James, unlike Elizabeth, had no desire to annoy the Spanish, and so he ordered Ralegh not to trespass on Spanish territory but, instead, to explore areas (such as the Orinoco) where the Spanish had not yet established colonial settlements. On the voyage across the Atlantic, storms weakened and delayed his fleet, and a fever raced among the men, killing many, including Ralegh’s son. The expedition was also a financial disaster. A mine Ralegh had believed would be a source of great stores of gold could not be worked because the route to the mine was almost impassable and he could not get the local Indians to work for him. When Ralegh returned to England in 1618, he arrived in disgrace. Worse still, the Spanish had interpreted his actions as a threat to their American property. When the ambassador to England complained that Ralegh and his forces were responsible for destroying a Spanish post at San Tomas, Ralegh was again committed to the Tower of London. Tried on various charges, including an accusation that he tried to bring England and Spain into war against each other, that he had deceived others about the potential of the mine, and that he had been “unfaithful” to the king, James ordered his execution.

On October 29, 1618, the day after he received his final sentence, Ralegh was beheaded in front of a large crowd. After showing his head to the crowd, the executioners presented it to Bess, who allegedly put it in a red leather bag. She had the head embalmed and later displayed it to visitors.

Further reading: Stephen Coote, A Play of Passion: The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh (London: Macmillan, 1993); Agnes Latham and Joyce Youings, eds., The Letters of Sir Walter Ralegh (Exeter, U. K.: University of Exeter Press, 1999); Charles Nicholl, The Creature in the Map: A Journey to El Dorado (New York: William Morrow, 1995); Robert H. Schomburgh, ed., The Discovery of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful Empire of Guiana. . . by Sir W. Ralegh, Hakluyt Society, 1st Ser., no. 3 (London, Hakluyt Society, 1849).