Hernán Cortés

"This is Aztec gold. One of 882 identical pieces they delivered in a stone chest to Cortés himself. Blood money paid to stem the slaughter he wreaked upon them with his armies. But the greed of Cortés was insatiable. So the heathen gods placed upon the gold a terrible curse."

- Hector Barbossa to Elizabeth Swann

Hernán Cortés, also known as '''Hernándo Cortés Pizarro, 1st. Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca''' (1485&mdash;December 2, 1547) was a Spanish conquistador who overthrew the Aztec empire.

Biography
Cortés wreaked death and destruction upon the Aztecs during his lifetime, and in an attempt to stem the slaughter, the Aztecs bestowed upon Cortés a stone chest filled with blood money. The chest contained eight hundred and eighty-two identical pieces of Aztec gold, though even this was not enough to sate Cortés' greed. In response to Cortés' bloodthirst, the heathen gods placed upon the coins a terrible curse; one that caused any who so much as took one coin from the chest to become undead, and whose true appearance, revealed only by the light of the moon, was that of a ragged, rotting skeleton.

Cortés himself, presumably cursed, buried the chest on Isla de Muerta, and on it the curse remained. Only by replacing all coins, and repaying the sacrifice in blood, could the curse be lifted. Ultimately, Hector Barbossa's crew fell afoul of the curse after spending all gold coins upon finding the chest at Isla de Muerta. William Turner freed them of their curse once all the coins had been returned, and soon after, the island and its treasure was claimed by the sea.

Cortés once possessed a magical sword, said to have the power to rule entire kingdoms. It became the object of a quest undertaken by Jack Sparrow and his crew during Sparrow's teenage years. Sparrow's crew conjoured the spirit of Cortés from the Sword, which only allowed Jack to use its power to achieve his own ends, thus in a way, depriving Jack of his freedom. Cortés' plans were stopped when the spirit of the Aztec ruler Montezuma rose from another artifact Jack found, the eye of Stone-Eyed Sam, and defeated him in combat.

Appearances

 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow: The Pirate Chase
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow: The Sword of Cortés
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl