The sixteenth-century conqueror of Mexico. Once a poor captain from Extremadura, Spain, Cortés (1485-1547) became the conqueror of Mexico, later Honduras, and finally the Captain-General of New Spain. Marquis of vast holdings in present-day Cuernavaca and the state of Oaxaca, and one of the wealthiest men of his time, he died in Spain, but was buried in Mexico.