A quick heads-up that this episode will have adult content throughout, including violent battle scenes and some deeply problematic colonial mindsets.

Plus, I'm here, so there will probably be a bit of swearing, so do watch out for that.

From the bedrooms of powerful men, we're bringing you the secret histories of their mistresses, concubines and courtesans.

I'm Jamila Jamil. I'm an actor, a writer and a broadcaster.

And I'm Dr. Kate Lister, a historian with a punch on to the scandalous tales from centuries past.

This is mistresses, an audible original.

We're in what is now modern-day Mexico. We're in what is now modern-day Mexico, and it's been two years of violent, bloody conquest by the Spanish.

The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan has finally fallen and the empire has crumbled.

A Spanish conquistador named Hernando Cortez de Monroix is looking out over the ruins of the once

great Aztec city.

The ashes of Tenosh Titlan are the fruits of his labour.

He has led the conquest of this landscape.

But he's not alone.

Standing by his side is someone who's been crucial to his mission. She's an indigenous woman, his interpreter and advisor, originally gifted

to him as a slave. She also happens to be his mistress. She is a woman who is still highly controversial today. Is she

a traitor who betrayed her people? An expert negotiator who minimised the violent impact of

Hernandez's mission or a slave who had no agency over her actions. She's known to Hernando by her

Christian name Marina. She's popularly known

today as La Malinche. But we will be calling her by the name that was most used during her

lifetime, Melinzen. We're about to tell you the extraordinary story of how she changed the face

of an entire continent forever.

Melincent is such an important but such a controversial figure in Mexican history. And from

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