The Prophecies

by Nostradamus

  The foe is much surprised by the disguise.

  6.15

  Beneath the tombstone they shall find the Prince

  Who shall have triumphed over Nuremberg :

  The Spanish King, when Capricorn is thin,

  Shall be betrayed by the lord of Wittenberg.

  6.16

  What shall be plundered from the youthful Milve

  By the French of Normandy & Picardy :

  The black monks of the land of Negresilve

  Shall make the inn & hearth of Lombardy.

  6.17

  After penances the priests shall be burned,

  Obliged to change their various habits :

  Millers shall burn the Saturnines alive,

  Except the majority of converts.

  6.18

  The King abandoned by his physicians,

  Fate, not the Hebrew’s art, has saved his life :

  Heights of power reached by him & his kin :

  Forgiveness to all those who yearn for Christ.

  6.19

  The lady shall be burned by the true flame

  That would roast all Innocents in hell :

  The army on fire before the campaign,

  When a monster bull is seen in Seville.

  6.20

  The sham alliance shall not long endure,

  Some are transformed but the most are reformed :

  The ships filled with troops hard-bitten & dour,

  And a new leopard ruling over Rome.

  6.21

  Once all those of the northern climes unite,

  Great fear & terror shall reign in the East :

  A new election, the Church set aright,

  Rhodes, Byzance by Barbary blood be stained.

  6.22

  Within the land of the heavenly church,

  At London, nephew wounded, peace a sham :

  The barque then shall completely split apart,

  Sham liberty shouted throughout the land.

  6.23

  The coin of the realm shall be much descried

  And peoples incited against their King :

  Peace, novelties, holy laws in decline,

  Never before did Rapis feel this sting.

  6.24

  When Mars & Jupiter come to conjoin

  Under Cancer, most calamitous war :

  Shortly thereafter, new King anointed,

  Who shall bring a lasting peace to the world.

  6.25

  Fending off Mars the holy monarchy

  Of the fisherman shall go to the dogs :

  A young black, red shall seize the hierarchy :

  Treacherous deeds under a pall of fog.

  6.26

  Four years he’ll have a hold over the see,

  One shall succeed who’ll live a life of lust :

  Ravenna, Pisa, Verona shall increase

  The Pope’s desire to campaign for the cross.

  6.27

  In the isles where five streams flow into one,

  ’Neath the lunar crescent of Chyren Selin :

  In the misted air one flies into a rage :

  Hid in bundles of flax, six shall escape.

  6.28

  The mighty Celt shall enter into Rome

  With a throng of the exiled & banished :

  The Pope shall put to death every man

  United against the Cock in the Alps.

  6.29

  The saintly widow hearing the reports

  About the persecution of her heirs :

  She’ll be induced to put an end to wars,

  And pursue the monks to their very lairs.

  6.30

  Feigning an appearance of sanctity,

  He shall betray the see to the enemy :

  Just as one thought it was safe to sleep,

  Near Brabant, one hears Liège’s marching feet.

  6.31

  The King shall discover what he so desired,

  When the Prelate is blamed by mistake :

  His reply to the duke shall raise his ire,

  Who in Milan shall send many to the stake.

  6.32

  Charged with treason, pummeled to death by sticks,

  Captured at the very height of his woes :

  Trifling assurance to the great captive,

  When mad Berich comes to bite off his nose.

  6.33

  Bloodied by Alus, his remaining force

  Shall be unable to retreat by the sea :

  An army is feared between the two streams :

  Black & wrathful, he shall inspire remorse.

  6.34

  Of flying fire such the machination

  That the great chief shall be struck by terror :

  Within there shall be so much sedition

  That the besieged are driven to despair.

  6.35

  Near Trion, not far from the white-wooled Ram,

  Taurus, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Aries,

  Mars, Jupiter: the Sun shall scorch the plain,

  The woods & cities : letters sealed with wax.

  6.36

  For good or for ill the land army’s troops

  Shall reach the outskirts of Perugia :

  Pisa shall revolt, Florence know much woe :

  King hurt night on mule in black gaiter boots.

  6.37

  The ancient work shall be fulfilled in time :

  The roof shall come crashing down on the lord :

  An innocent blamed for the mortal crime,

  The culprit hiding in the misty grove.

  6.38

  Enemies of peace to the vanquished,

  Their conquest of Italy once assured :

  The bloody black, red one shall commit this :

  Fire, bloodshed, rivers running red with gore.

  6.39

  His father captured, the child of the realm

  Shall be despoiled & held for ransom :

  The Blues shall be seized near Trasimen,

  The troops taken hostage, stinking drunk.

  6.40

  The lord of Mainz, having overdrunk his fill,

  Shall lose all dignity, the tipsy swine :

  Cologne so complains about the imbecile

  That his butt shall be thrown into the Rhine.

  6.41

  The second chief of the realm of Denmark

  Shall ask the Frisians & the British isles

  To spend more than a hundred thousand marks

  To fund his futile Italian trip in style.

  6.42

  To Ogmion shall devolve the kingdom

  Of the great Selin whose deeds he’ll improve :

  Through Italy he’ll extend its ensign,

  Governed by guile & singular prudence.

  6.43

  The land shall long remain without a soul

  That’s watered by the rivers Seine & Marne :

  The Thames armies shall take it as their goal :

  No guard should think he could lay down his arms.

  6.44

  By night near to Nantes shall the rainbow beam,

  Spells cast on the sea bringing rain somehow :

  Fleet sunk in the Arab gulf : a monster seen

  In Saxony, born of a bear & sow.

  6.45

  The most learnèd governor of the land,

  Unwilling to bow to the king’s command :

  Malta’s fleet, stalled by the contrary winds,

  Makes him an even more disloyal man.

  6.46

  A just one into exile shall be sent,

  With plague around the confines of Nonseggle :

  His reply to the red means he’s misled,

  King withdrawing before the Frog & Eagle.

  6.47

  The two lords assembled between two mounts

  Shall put aside their well-concealed hate :

  Brussels & Dole by Langres so hounded

  That at Malines they shall inflict their plague.

  6.48

/>   With their sham & seductive sanctity,

  Attended by their arts of fluency,

  To Florence, Siena they shall lay waste,

  The old city & Parma prone to haste.

  6.49

  The great pontiff of the party of Mammer

  Shall conquer the confines of the Danube :

  By hook or by crook a crusade he’ll prepare :

  Captives, gold, rings, hundred thousand rubies.

  6.50

  The bones shall be found within the pit,

  The stepmother incest shall commit :

  The state once changed, they’ll seek fame & praise

  And Mars ascending shall rule its fate.

  6.51

  People assembled to see the new show,

  Bystanders including princes & kings :

  Pillars, walls fall : miraculously though,

  The King & thirty spectators come through.

  6.52

  To replace the lord who shall be condemned,

  His friend released from prison shall agree :

  Child stillborn, six months of Trojan hopes end :

  Sun in Aquarius, all the rivers freeze.

  6.53

  The Celtic prelate suspect to the King

  Shall quit the realm by night undetected :

  By a duke fertile to his British king,

  Byzance by Cyprus, Tunis unsuspected.

  6.54

  At daybreak after the cock’s second crow,

  Those of Tunis, of Fez & of Bougie :

  The Arabs the Moroccan King shall hold,

  Sixteen oh seven of the liturgy.

  6.55

  Diving for sponges in the noonday sun,

  The Duke suddenly sees the Arab fleet :

  Tripolis, Chios, those of Trebizond :

  His city emptied, Duke seized by Black Sea.

  6.56

  The much-feared army of the Narbonne foe

  Shall cause the Hesperians sudden fright :

  Perpignan be emptied by the blind mole,

  Barcelona by sea shall start the fight.

  6.57

  He whose temporal power was quite clear,

  With a red chief close to the hierarchy :

  Harsh & cruel & inspiring so much fear,

  He shall take over the sacred monarchy.

  6.58

  Between the two monarchs who are estranged,

  When the sunlight is eclipsed by the moon :

  Such rivalry between these two enraged

  That Siena & the Isles are let loose.

  6.59

  The lady enraged having been betrayed

  Asks her prince to say no to her rival :

  Once the dispute becomes a public shame,

  Seventeen shall be denied survival.

  6.60

  Out of his Celtic lands the prince shall be

  Betrayed by his interpreter in chief :

  Rouen, Rochelle deceived by Brittany,

  The port of Blaye duped by monk & priest.

  6.61

  The great folded tapestry shall not show

  More than half of the celebrated tale :

  Routed from the realm, so fierce shall he grow,

  All shall think him quite the warrior male.

  6.62

  Both come too late, the flowers shall be lost,

  Loath to swear an oath against the creed :

  The rebel foes by the French staved off :

  Savona, Albenga by Monech shall bleed.

  6.63

  The lady left alone upon the throne,

  Who welcomed the first & only to bed :

  Seven years shall she be aggrieved & mourn,

  Then a long & fortunate reign instead.

  6.64

  Not a single treaty guaranteed,

  The credulous all taken for a ride :

  Land & sea echoing with truce & peace,

  The fleet taking Barcelona by guile.

  6.65

  War half-declared between the gray and brown,

  Attacked & then plundered during the night :

  The captured brown one into dungeon thrown,

  Two terra-cotta figures in his shrine.

  6.66

  At the founding of the sect deemed so new,

  They shall dig up the great Roman’s remains :

  The marble-clad tomb shall come into view :

  Earthquake in April, burial in May.

  6.67

  A stranger shall make imperial news,

  Further from goodness than felicity :

  Ruled by one born not far from the stews,

  When kingdoms collapse, great the misery.

  6.68

  When soldiers in their seditious rage

  Flash their swords at night against their chief :

  Alba attacked, the troops on a rampage,

  Then vexing Rome & duping its elite.

  6.69

  Great succor shall soon be on its way,

  Those who gave shall be constrained to take :

  Naked, starved, thirsty, cold, as an army

  They shall cross the mountains, wreaking havoc.

  6.70

  Lord of the world the great Chyren shall be,

  Plus ultra left behind, much loved & feared :

  His fame & praise shall outsurpass the skies,

  Well pleased to be the sole victor revered.

  6.71

  When to the great king they’ll pay their respects

  Before he has even drawn his last breath :

  To him who shall have the least cause to mourn

  Shall lion, eagles sell the cross & crown.

  6.72

  In a feigned frenzy of possession divine,

  The woman is violated by the lord :

  The judges wanting to damn such doctrines,

  The victim is immolated by the mob.

  6.73

  A friar & artisan sneak into town,

  Near the walls & gate take up their lodgings :

  Plotting against Modena, keeping mum,

  Betrayed, claiming they’re there for a wedding.

  6.74

  She who was banished shall return to power,

  Revealed the victim of conspiracy :

  More than ever she’ll know her finest hour :

  Certain death for all the seventy-three.

  6.75

  The King shall command the mighty pilot

  To leave the navy for a higher post :

  Seven years later he’ll be put to rout :

  Venice shall fear the Barbarian host.

  6.76

  The ancient town founded by Antenor

  Shall no longer tolerate the tyrant :

  In the church they shall slash the cripple’s throat,

  While the citizens bump off his henchman.

  6.77

  Deceived by the victory most fraudulent,

  Winner taking all, revolt in Germania :

  The chief wounded & his son in the tent :

  Florence, Imola chased into Romagna.

  6.78

  Victorious over great Crescent Selene,

  He shall be acclaimed by Romans as Eagle :

  Pavia, Milan, Genoa disagree,

  Then decide to demand their own Basil.

  6.79

  Near the Ticino, people from the Seine,

  Garonne & Saone, Loire & Tarn & Gironde

  Beyond the mountains shall a bridgehead gain :

  The battle erupts: Po swollen, flood zone.

  6.80

  The realm of Fez into Europe shall spread,

  Burning its cities, slashing with the sword :

  Land & sea, the horde of the Asian lord,

  Blue turbans most, shall hunt the cross to death.

  6.81

  Tears, shrieks & moans, vociferation, fright,

  Inhuman heart, cruel, & blacker than stone :

  In Leman and Genoa’s greater isles,

  Bloodshed, no wheat to eat, no
mercy shown.

  6.82

  Through the wilderness & the forest thick

  Shall wander the nephew of the Pontiff :

  Murdered by seven with a candlestick,

  Who shall proceed to seize the chalice.

  6.83

  He who shall be a great celebrity

  Upon his entry into Belgic Gaul

  Shall soon thereafter most ungracious be,

  With much hostility toward the flower.

  6.84

  He who’s too lame over Sparta to reign

  Shall find his way through guile & much deceit :

  But sooner or later he’ll be arraigned,

  For he shall have the King within his sights.

  6.85

  The town of Tarsus by the Gauls shall be

  Destroyed, all those in turbans led away :

  Help by sea supplied by the Portuguese,

  At summer’s eve & on St. Urban’s Day.

  6.86

  The day after the Prelate dreams a dream,

  Interpreted in its opposite sense :

  A Gascon monk shall appear in a gleam,

  Meaning he’s elected Prelate of Sens.

  6.87

  The election that was held in Frankfurt

  Shall not apply : Milan not so inclined :

  His closest kin shall seem such a strong threat

  He’ll drive him into the bogs beyond the Rhine.

  6.88

  A mighty kingdom ever desolate,

  Near to the Ebro shall be their conclave :

  The Pyrenees shall provide him solace,

  When the lands all quake in the month of May.

  6.89

  Between two jugs, his hands & feet tied up,

  Face smeared with a mix of milk & honey,

  The faithless lover, pricked by wasps & flies,

  Throat parched, not a drop to drink in the cup.

  6.90

  A foul abominable rank disgrace

  After which he shall be roundly praised :