The Indian Emperour

The Indian Emperour, or the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, being the Sequel of The Indian Queen is an English Restoration era stage play, a heroic drama written by John Dryden that was first performed in the Spring of 1665. The play has been considered a defining work in the subgenre of heroic drama, in which "rhymed heroic tragedy comes into full being." As its subtitle indicates, the play deals with the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire under Hernán Cortés.

The play depicts both Montezuma and Cortés facing personal problems while engaged in their conflict. In an anachronism, Francisco Pizarro is depicted as the play's cruel and oppressive villain. The writer used Sir William Davenant's The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru (1658), and the Spanish accounts of the conquest in Purchas his Pilgrimes (1625 edition) as his main sources for the depictions of the Spaniards.

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