Aztec families demand 16th-Century pensions

Spain promised compensation for Cortes' capture of Moctezuma

The descendants of the last Aztec emperor of Mexico are trying to recover pensions granted to them 450 years ago.

The application refers to a promise in 1550 by Spain's King Carlos V to Princess Isabel Moctezuma, daughter of Moctezuma II.

Moctezuma was imprisoned in 1519 by Hernan Cortes, the Spanish conqueror of Mexico, and his descendants were promised perpetual pensions in return for the loss of their land and position.

These descendants - the Acosta family and the Spanish counts Miravalle - received pensions until 1934, when they were cancelled by the Mexican Government.

Now, Guillermo Acosta, a fourteenth-generation descendent of Moctezuma II, is appealing to the government to have the pensions reinstated.

Gold rush

Mr Acosta argues that the many changes of regime in Mexico should have no bearing on his family's pension rights.

Moctezuma II was the last Aztec emperor of Mexico

"After the Spanish crown, the governments of independent Mexico, even the revolutionary ones, all recognised the pensions, until in 1934 they bid us goodbye," Mr Acosta said.

According to one historian's calculations, the pensions were the equivalent of 250 ounces of gold, currently worth an annual $90,000 (£57,000).

The case has not yet come to court, as Mr Acosta and his relatives are in consultation with their lawyers as to the best way to proceed.

Tangled web

Precedents suggest, however, that his appeal has little chance of success: the 1934 annulment by a Mexican president cannot easily be overturned 70 years later.

Successive changes of regime, and the financial arrangements that hang from them, often create tortuous legal cases.

A mass of legal and financial claims are still being heard in relation to diverse historic events such as the Russian revolution, the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, the independence of Europe's African colonies and many more.