The Prophecies

by Nostradamus

  8.89 Peloncle: Unclear. From Pellonia, the goddess of victory? Or Mount Pelion in Thessaly? dragged along: Cf. 7.38.

  8.90 a horned ox in the holy church: The identical apocalyptic image occurs in the Prophecy of the Blessed Vincent included in one of Nostradamus’s sourcebooks, the Mirabilis liber (1522).

  8.91 The two braziers: Mars and Venus, following the legend that Venus had been bound to husband Mars by a thread produced by Vulcan.

  8.94 Alba’s troops: Cf. 4.98; 7.29; 8.40.

  8.96 The barren, fruitless synagogue of yore: As Leoni notes, during Nostradamus’s own lifetime thousands of Jews, fleeing persecution in Catholic lands, accepted the hospitality of Süleyman the Magnificent and settled in Constantinople, Salonika, and Adrianople. See also Isaiah 54:1.

  8.97 Var: River in southeastern France.

  8.99 change the site of the Holy See: The Holy Council was transferred to Trent, where, in 1551, reacting to Protestant assertions to the contrary, it officially reaffirmed the doctrine of the literal transubstantiation of Christ’s blood and body in the Eucharist (the “corporal substance of the spirit” of line 3). Cf. 2.27; 3.2; 7.36.

  CENTURY IX

  9.1 the translator: In his youth, Étienne de La Boétie (1530–1563), translator and humanist (and Montaigne’s best friend), wrote a pamphlet, Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, or the Anti-Dictator, directed against Anne de Montmorency, constable of France, criticizing the latter’s savage suppression of the salt-tax revolt in southwestern France in 1548. Cf. 3.32.

  9.2 Aventine Hill: One of the seven hills of Rome, which would indicate that the “red ones” of line 3 might be cardinals. the Colonna: One of the most influential families in Rome; during Nostradamus’s day, they favored Spain’s hegemony over Italy. Cf. 8.67; 10.64.

  9.3 magna vaqua: From the Latin, “big cow.” Magnavacca was also the name of a canal between Ravenna and Ferrara. Fornase: Probably Farnese, initially a castle (or rocca) acquired and improved in 1504 by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the future pope Paul III. Or Fornase, a village west of Venice?

  9.6 Anglaquitania: Aquitaine had become an English possession as early as 1152, when Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry II of England. It was not annexed to France until 1453, at the end of the Hundred Years’ War. Barboccitania: The feared occupation of southwestern France (from Bordeaux to the Languedoc region of Occitania) by “Barbarians” (Muslim Turks? Barbary pirates? Spaniards?).

  9.7 newly found trove: Cf. 1.27.

  9.9 the Temple of Diana’s walls: Cf. note to 8.28. The Temple of Diana was associated with the cult of the Vestal Virgins. Cf. 10.6.

  9.10 Pamiers: A town lying north of Foix, in the same general southwestern area of France as Toulouse and Carcassonne.

  9.12 unearth silver likenesses: Cf. 8.28; 9.9.

  9.13 Sologne: Town in the upper Loire region. Auxois: Region of Burgundy to the west of Dijon. Burançoys: Buzançais, just south of Sologne? Byzantines?

  9.15 Perpignan: Chief city of Roussillon, held by the Spanish (“the red ones”) until 1659.

  9.16 Castelfranco: An attack from Castelfranco (west of Modena) on the Italian Riviera? Read by some twentieth-century commentors as alluding to France’s Riviera in the Spanish Civil War.

  9.17 Nero: Roman emperor from 54 to 68 C.E., known for his cruelty and orgiastic excess. Cf. 9.53; 9.76.

  9.18 the great Montmorency: Constable Anne de Montmorency (1493–1567) had been captured and imprisoned by the Spaniards at the battle of Saint-Quentin in 1557. Cf. 9.1; 9.29; 9.40.

  9.19 Mayenne: Town in the province of Maine in northwest France belonging to the house of Guise; Fougères (line 4), slightly to the west of it, belonged to Diane de Poitiers, Henri II’s mistress.

  9.20 the woods of Reines: The city of Rennes? Nineteenth-century Nostradamus scholar Anatole Le Pelletier derives the old French spelling of forest from the Latin foris (gate), thus arriving at “through the gates of Queens,” i.e., the secret doors of Queen Marie Antoinette’s apartments through which the royal couple escaped from the Tuileries on June 21, 1791, during their celebrated flight to Varennes (line 3). But like all the other place-names in this quatrain (Pierre Blanche, Herne, Vaultorte, Varennes), the forest of Rennes-en-Grenouilles (spelled “Raines” in the sixteenth century) was lifted from the pages of Charles Estienne’s Guide des chemins de France (1552). This particular area (cf. the previous quatrain) was a site of numerous skirmishes between Protestants and Catholics during Nostradamus’s lifetime. The black monk all in gray: Identified by Le Pelletier as Louis XVI, disguised in drab (monkish?) gray during his flight to Varennes. Provides the title for the historian Georges Dumézil’s razzle-dazzle reading of this quatrain, Le moyne noir en gris dedans Varennes (1984), translated into English as The Riddle of Nostradamus (1999). Prévost specifically identifies this figure as the pro-Catholic captain Antoine du Plessis de Richelieu. cap.: Abbreviation for captain? For those looking for Louis XVI here, it would read “Capet”—with the final “sang tranche” (“blood slice”) clearly alluding to the guillotine.

  9.21 church of Saint-Solenne: The cathedral of Blois. Cf. 9.23. Olonne: Les Sables d’Olonne and Olonne-sur-Mer, on the seacoast north of La Rochelle.

  9.23 The roof collapsing: According to Prévost, alludes to the accidental death of the young comte d’Enghien in February 1546, followed by François I’s expiatory Easter pilgrimage to the abbey of Ferrières in Sologne, south of Blois. Cf. 3.40; 9.83.

  9.25 Rosiers: Town in the Limousin. Béziers: Languedoc town near the Spanish border.

  9.26 Nice: Territory of the duchy of Savoy. Voltri: On the Ligurian coast between Genoa and Savona. Piombino: Further down the coast, opposite Elba.

  9.27 the young Dauphin: Refracts events during Pope Clement VII’s trip to Marseille in the autumn of 1533 to celebrate the nuptials of the dauphin Henri (subsequently Henri II) to Caterina de’ Medici. Cf. 2.14. the duke’s demesne: The pope returned to Rome via Nice, in the duchy of Savoy.

  9.28 Pannonia: Roughly coincides with present-day Hungary, held by the Turks. the gulf & Illyrian bay: I.e., the Adriatic Sea.

  9.29 Saint-Quentin, Calais: Saint-Quentin had been taken by the Spanish on August 10, 1557. Calais, held by the British since 1347, was recaptured by the Duke of Guise, along with Saint-Quentin, in early 1558, just as Nostradamus was completing his Prophecies. Cf. 9.18; 9.40.

  9.30 Pula & Saint Nicholas: Pula, port on the Istrian Peninsula at the head of the Adriatic; Saint Nicholas, across the bay from Porec on the north of the peninsula. Phanatic Bay: Pun aside, probably the Gulf of Quarnero (Sinus Flanaticus in Latin) on which Fiume (now Rijeka) is located. the Philippine great: Philip II?

  9.31 Mortara: Town just southwest of Milan. St. George Caltagirone: A church near Catania in Sicily destroyed by the great earthquakes of 1542.

  9.32 A porphyry column: The discovery of the obelisk of Augustus Caesar in 1502 toward the end of the reign of Pope Alexander VI. The latter pursued an aggressive foreign policy against the Turks (the “scraggly” or “twisty” beards of line 3). Cf. 8.66. Mytilene: The Greek isle of Lesbos.

  9.33 Hercules: The figure of the universal monarch; see note to 1.96 concerning Ogmion, the Gallic Hercules. St. Mark’s seas: The territories and sea routes of the Republic of Venice.

  9.34 The mitered one: According to Prévost, French foreign minister Cardinal Georges d’Ambroise, furious with the Spaniards for having reneged on their secret agreement to divvy up Italy with France, launched a campaign of retribution in 1503 against Spain (country of tile roofs, line 2). Salces: A town on the border near Narbonne, besieged over the course of the campaign, but the provisions of oil and candles intended for the French were allowed to fall into Spanish hands—leading to the dismissal of Marshal Rieux, commander of the French company of five hundred men (line 3).

  9.35 Ferdinand: As in 8.81, tensions are predicted between the new Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and his nephew Philip II of Spain (here as elsewhere referred to by the memory of his namesak
e, Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great). Cf. 9.38; 9.64; 9.93; 10.7. the flower: Usually refers to Florence. Myrmidon: The tribe of Achilles, known for their obedience, here equated to Philip II, the “Macedon.”

  9.36 three brothers: Cf. 8.17; 8.46.

  9.37 flooding Garonne: The Annales de Toulouse of 1536 recorded major flooding during December of that year. Matronne: The river Marne (Matrona in Latin).

  9.38 the Macedonian: The French Aemathien derives from the Latin Emathia, synonym for Macedonia, hence Philip II of Spain again (cf. 9.35). Further (this time, Anglo-Spanish) military maneuvers against the French.

  9.39 Albisola, Veront [?], Carcari [i.e., Caracara]…Savona: Towns along the northern Ligurian coast. Turbie, & La Scerry: La Turbie and L’Escarène, north of Monaco.

  9.40 Near Saint-Quentin: Revisiting France’s major military disaster at Saint-Quentin on August 10, 1557. Cf. 9.18; 9.29.

  9.41 The great Chyren: Usually Henri II (see note to 2.79). Here conflated with his father, François I, who had temporarily seized Avignon from the papacy in 1536, provoking diplomatic protests from Pope Paul III (line 2). Chanignon: Canino, a town adjacent to the pope’s fortress at Farnese (see note to 9.3)? Carpentras: Northwest of Avignon, part of the papal possessions in France.

  9.42 Barbar fleet: Recollections of the fleet of the Ottoman corsair and admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa, driven out of Tunis by Charles V’s expedition of 1535.

  9.43 Ishmaelites: Biblical name for the Arvim, or Arabs, direct descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar (Book of Jubilees 20:13). Cf. 9.60.

  9.44 RAYPOZ: According to Leoni, an anagram for Zopyra. Herodotus (III, 153–60) recounts how during Darius’s siege of Babylon, his friend Zopyra decided to cut off his nose and ears and to introduce himself into the city as a deserter, claiming he had been cruelly mutilated by his king. Gaining the confidence of Babylon’s defenders, Zopyra thus managed to deliver the city over to the Persians. Philip II of Spain adopted the name of Zopyra in one of his devices—two scepters passed in saltire through a crown over an open pomegranate, bearing the motto “Tot Zopiro.”

  9.45 Mendosus: Latin mendosus, “full of faults, erroneous.” Anagram for Vendôme? Cf. 9.50. Tyrron: Likely from the Latin Tyrrhenia, i.e., Etruscan, Tuscan.

  9.49 The senate of London its king shall slay: Read by Le Pelletier as predicting the fate of King Charles I of England, beheaded in 1649. Others prefer to see this quatrain as alluding to the unhappy fate of Edward II of England (1284–1327).

  9.50 Mandosus: Cf. 9.45. Norlaris: Anagram for Lorraine? Barbaries: Barbary pirates.

  9.53 Nero: Cf. 9.17; 9.76.

  9.56 Goussonville, Houdan: Towns to the west of Paris. Maiotes: Mantes?

  9.57 DRUX: Dreux, westward of Paris in Normandy?

  9.58 Vitry: Vitry-le-François in Champagne, southeast of Paris?

  9.59 Nicholas: The context would suggest Nicholas de Lorraine (1524–1577), whose daughter Louise, born in 1553, would later marry Henri III, the last Valois king.

  9.60 Mighty Ishmael: Cf. 9.43. frogs: Often used by Nostradamus for sea admirals or pirates. Cf. 5.3; 5.95.

  9.61 Cittanova…Messina: Part of the Hapsburg Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Malta, also a Hapsburg protectorate, had been the seat of the Knights of St. John since 1530.

  9.62 Cheramon: Ceramon-agora, a Greek town in Asia Minor, today’s Usak.

  9.63 Mars: Each revolution of Mars takes 687 days.

  9.64 The Macedonian: Philip II of Spain. Cf. 9.35; 9.38. Cap.: Captain?

  9.65 Luna: A place-name or simply a patch of moonlight?

  9.67 Isère: The river Isère flows into the Rhône at Valence. Romans, Crest, Pierrelatte, Donzère, Châteauneuf all lie nearby in this area of the Dauphiné, a part of the papal enclave of Venaissin.

  9.68 Montélimar: In the Drôme (cf. the geography of the previous quatrain). where Saône meets Rhône: The city of Lyon. Lucy’s day: December 13.

  9.69 Sain-Bel & L’Arbresle…Grenoble: Towns in the Dauphiné. Vienne: South of Lyon on the Rhône.

  9.70 Latin cantons: The Swiss Grisons?

  9.72 churches shall be defiled: A takeover of Toulouse by the Protestants (the “folk of a new leaven” of line 4)? two three cycles: If this is read as six revolutions, it would come to 177 years. leaven: Matthew 16:6: “the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.”

  9.73 one of Saturn’s turns: Twenty-nine years and 167 days. the Urn: Aquarius. The astrology points to the year 1586.

  9.74 Fertsod: Read by some as a distant anagram for Sodom—or as Toulouse, traditional site of the pagan sacrifice of bulls and a Protestant stronghold. Cf. 1.79; 9.46.

  9.75 Ambracia: Arta in western Greece; Thrace lies in northeastern Greece.

  9.76 Nero: Cf. 9.17; 9.53. the young bald one: Lemesurier reads the French (“Joyne chaulberon”) as homophonic with Jean Chauvin (i.e., John Calvin), a Protestant leader who had the heretic Michael Servetus burned alive in Geneva (between the rivers Arve and Rhône) in 1553.

  9.77 the King: Henry VIII of England?

  9.78 The damsel Greek: According to Prévost, Helen of Epirus, daughter of the Emperor of Constantinople, courted by numerous suitors, eventually marrying the son of Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, then widowed and captured on her way back to Greece and imprisoned in Spanish-controlled Naples, where she died in 1271.

  9.79 chrism: Oil mingled with balm, consecrated for use as an unguent in the administration of certain sacraments of the Christian churches (Oxford English Dictionary).

  9.81 coqueluches: “A hood; also the Coqueluchoe [sic], or new disease [i.e., whooping cough], which troubled the French about the yeares 1510 and 1557; and us but a while agoe” (Cotgrave’s Dictionarie of 1611). By extension, hooded monks? Translator: Alternate reading: “traducer.”

  9.83 crowded theater: Cf. 3.40.

  9.84 The flood unearths: Cf. 5.7; 5.66; 8.66; 9.9.

  9.85 Guyenne: Large province of southwestern France, adjacent to Languedoc. Agen…Marmande…La Réole: Towns on the river Garonne in Guyenne. Phocaean: Latin adjective for Marseille. Saint-Paul-de-Mausole: Nostradamus’s Saint-Rémy. See note to 4.27.

  9.86 Bourg-la-Reine: A few miles south of Paris. All five place-names (except Paris) in this and the following quatrain occur on a single page (p. 92) of Charles Estienne’s 1552 Guide des chemins de France.

  9.88 Calais…Thérouanne: The port of Calais had belonged to the English since 1347, but was seized by the French in early 1558 under the Duke of Guise. Cf. 9.29. Nearby Thérouanne was destroyed by Charles V in 1553. Roanne: Northwest of Lyon on the Loire, thus not far from the duchy of Savoy.

  9.89 Fortune shall favor Philip seven years: If Philip II of Spain’s fortunate years dated from 1554 (when he married Queen Mary of England), then his defeat by Henri II, the young French Hercules (“Ogmion,” line 4), would have fallen in 1561. (Henri II died in 1559.) Ogmion: Cf. note to 1.96.

  9.90 Pannonia: Present-day southern Hungary.

  9.91 Perinthus: Town in Thrace. All the other place-names in this quatrain are located in Greece. Anthony: St. Anthony? Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, king of Navarre, father of Henri IV?

  9.92 the new city: Naples (from the Greek Neapolis)?

  9.93 Hercules…Macedon: Henri II vs. Philip II.

  9.94 Bratislava: One of the capitals of Hapsburg Hungary. Lübeck: Imperial free city on the Baltic. Meissen: On the Elbe in Saxony.

  9.98 Molite: From the Greek molos (war) or the Latin Melita (Malta)?

  CENTURY X

  10.5 Albi: A center of the Albigensians in thirteenth-century France; Castres lies nearby. Arrianus: Military commander and historian of Alexander the Great’s campaigns (ca. 86–160). Lauraguès: Albigensian village in the Aude.

  10.6 Deucalion: Greek mythological figure associated with the Deluge. Heavy flooding occurred throughout southern France in September 1557. Cf. 2.81. coliseum: The Arena of Nîmes. Vesta’s tomb: Cf. 8.28.

  10.7 Macedon: Philip II
. Cf. 9.35; 9.38; 9.64; 9.93. two Phi.: Apocope for Philip II? Metz: Town in French-occupied Lorraine.

  10.8 Senigallia: Above Ancona in the Papal States.

  10.11 Junquera: On the Spanish side of the Perthus Pass; Perpignan lies to the east, with the route leading to Tende, above Nice.

  10.13 Antipolis: Antibes, port between Cannes and Nice.

  10.14 Urnel Vaucile: Prévost reads as “Humil. Vacil.” (i.e., humilated, vacillating). Chartreux: Carthusian convent.

  10.15 To the agèd duke: An anecdote drawn from Book IV of Philippe de Commynes’ Mémoires, involving the Duke of Guelders’s torturing of his own father in the 1470s?

  10.17 The scheming queen: Perhaps Anne de Bretagne (1447–1514), queen of France, machinating to get her daughter Claude married off, first to the future emperor Charles V and then to the future François I, all the while attempting to get herself pregnant to preclude the latter from acceding the throne. Cf. 8.32.

  10.18 Vendôme: Usually read as predicting the rise to power of the future Henri IV, the Duke of Vendôme, a Protestant. Hamon: Jupiter.

  10.20 The Roman people: The sacking of Rome in 1527 by Imperial troops. Cf. 2.57; 5.81; 10.27.

  10.23 Antibes…Monaco…Fréjus: Towns along France’s southern coast.

  10.25 Ebro: River in northeastern Spain. Pézenas: North of Narbonne, on the border with Spain. Leoni’s reading of Brisanne. el Tago fara muestra: Spanish: “The Tagus [river in central Spain and Portugal] shall make a show.” Pelligouxe: Périgueux, in the Dordogne? orchestra: In Roman theaters, the area in front of the stage containing the seats of senators and other notables.

  10.27 the fifth & mighty Hercules: The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (symbolized by the eagle), whose forces sacked Rome in 1527, humiliating the papacy (symbolized by keys). Clement: Pope Clement VII (1478–1534). His first name, Julius, was modeled after Julius Ascanius, the son of Virgil’s Aeneas. Held prisoner in the Castel Sant’Angelo for six months in 1527. Cf. 2.57; 5.81; 10.20.

  10.29 Saint-Paul-de-Mausole: Adjacent to Nostradamus’s Saint-Rémy-de- Provence. See note to 4.27. Tarbes: Town in Gascony, southwestern France. Bigorre: The specific region of Gascony within which Tarbes is situated.