Dominic Sandbrook

The emperor doesn't meet their eye when he talks to them.

So the idea that these guys would have laid hands on him, dragged him out of his litter, and then forced him to sleep next to them, that's surely the biggest twist of all.

Now, you mentioned that Huascar was being brought north under guard.

In a cage, yes.

So Pizarro, when Atahualpa tells him this, Pizarro says, do not harm your brother because Pizarro obviously thinks, wow, if I get both of them, I can make them fight.

Well, we sleep with one on each side.

Who knows?

But Atahualpa has no intention of allowing his brother to fall into the Spanish hands because, of course, he worries that they might prefer his brother.

So he sends orders to the people who are bringing Huascar up at a place called Andamarca, which is south of Cayamarca in the mountains.

Huascar is murdered by his guards and his body is thrown into the river.

Exactly right.

And it's also a good example of how Atahualpa is not this sort of martyr, saintly martyr.

Atahualpa is a very hard man.

No, I think we've established he's not a saintly martyr.

So Atahualpa sends orders, carry on with the hits, basically.

So some of his other half-brothers, some of his other relatives are knocked off in the next few weeks.

And to us, to subsequent historians, they say, isn't this insane?

That Atahualpa is still pursuing his crazy factionalism, you know, after he's been taken prisoner in the face of this existential foreign threat.

But he doesn't think it is an existential foreign threat.

He thinks the civil war is the priority.