Heroes and Villains

Cortes (1x4)

: 15, 2008

A warrior in the mould of Ulysses, Cortés was cunning, imaginative and breathtakingly audacious. The flaws in his personality were complementary: deceit, hypocrisy … and a conscience that strove to square the love of God with the love of gold. He led his men – numbering just 500 – in one of the most amazing marches in history through the jungles and across the mountains of Mexico to confront and destroy one of the greatest, and bloodiest, civilisations of the New World. It would ultimately be years before Cortés defeated the Aztecs. And only with the help of a terrible disease, smallpox, which decimated the population. But he will always be remembered as the man who laid siege to an empire with 500 men and achieved immortality as one of the great conquistadors.