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Tant d’ans les guerres en Gaule dureront,
Oultre la course du Castulon monarque,
Victoire incerte trois trands couronneront
Aigle, coq, lune, lyon, soleil en marque.
This quatrain can only have occurred in the Second World War. Gaul definitely refers to France, it also refers to northern Italy: the Po river valley used to be part of ancient Gaul. Castulon has to refer to Castellón, a province of Spain. It also refers to Castile, one of the three ancient kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula that united into the Kingdom of Spain. The moon and the sun do not stand for any governments but types of government. The Eagle and Coq are clearly marked as lunar (republican) governments, while the Lion is clearly marked as a solar (monarchial) government. This makes the quatrain lay out like an open book.
The Second World War was a furious war. The involvement in France officially ended in 1940 by the signing of the Armistice. But it was not the end of the war in either part of Gaul. Italy was still involved, her armies were fighting in Africa and would soon fight in Greece. Three fifths of France was occupied by Germany and became an armed camp aimed right at the British nation, which remained unconquerable.
The Castulon monarch refers to the “monarchy” of Francisco Franco. He was the supreme dictator of Spain. France and Italy had played their part in the Spanish Civil War. Now, secure in power, Franco did all he could to make sure Spain remained neutral in the war.
The last two lines refer to the end of the Second World War. Victory crowned the three governments of the Republic of the United States (Eagle) the Republic of France (Coq) and the Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Lion). The victory was uncertain because in place of Heir Hitler arose Joseph Stalin and the forces of Communism. The Cold War was about to strike.
Le grand empire sera tost translate
En lieu petit qui bien tost viendra croistre :
Lieu bien infime d’exigue comté,
Ou au milieu viendra poser son sceptre.
The great empire is the French Empire. The government is Napoléon. In 1914 it was translated (moved) to the Isle of Elba, off the coast of Italy. There the allies hoped that he could be emperor to his heart’s content. However, he dreamed of imperial glory and watched affairs in France and Europe, most carefully France. When he deemed the time right, he left Elba and grew back into all of France.
The emperor was defeated at Waterloo and moved to the isle of St. Helena, a very tiny and lonely isle far off the coast of Africa. His castle was a barn that was converted for his use. He was guarded ceaselessly. There, in the middle of that isle, he laid down his scepter by dying.
Prés d’un grand pont de plaine spatieuse,
Le grand lyon par forces Cesarées
Fera abbaure hors cité rigoreuse,
Par effroy portes luy feront referées.
The great Lion is Alessandro Farnese, duca di Parma, the Caesarian forces are the forces of the Hapsburg Empire. This incident occurred during the Eighty Years war while the Lowlands were striving to gain independence from Spain.
Alessandro lead his legions, numbering over 60,000, to surround the city of Antwerp. He built massive towers to guard his seige and even established a massive pontoon style bridge over the Schelt to cut Antwerp off from all trade. The citizens of Antwerp, numbering over 100,000, fought back hard, trying desperately to break the siege and reopen the trade necessary to the survival of the city. They flooded the plains around the city and sent fireboats to break the bridge. But it was all to no avail. Finally, the city opened its gates.
Antwerp was the austere city because of the number of Calvanists, the austere people, within it, over 60,000. This was proved after Farnesse captured Antwerp; he allowed the people who wanted to leave to leave. The population of the city plummeted from over 100,000 to about 40,000, all of the exiles moving to the what is now modern day Netherlands.
L’oyseau de proye volant à la fenestre
Avant conflict faict aux Francoys pareure
L’un bon prendra, l’un ambique sinistre,
La partie foyble tiendra par bon augure.
While there are many birds of prey, the only one of worth is the eagle. This is because kings, emperors, even republics, have taken an eagle as their national symbol. Because of this, it is hard for me to determine which eagle is referred to here. The Spanish eagle and Spanish attacks on France? The French eagle and turmoil in Napoléonic France? The German eagle and Hitler during the Second World War? The Russian eagle? The American eagle? This limits me in my ability to interpret this quatrain.
Le lyon jeune le vieux furmontera,
En champ bellique par singulier duelle,
Dans caige d’or les yeux luy creuera,
Deux classes une puis mourir, mort cruelle.
Probably the most famous of the early quatrains which came out in the 1555 Bonhomme Edition, everyone knew this quatrain had to refer to the death of Henri, the older lion, long before he actually died. Henri’s killer, the Scottish Earl of Montgomery, recorded here as the Scottish Lion (the lion was the symbol of Scotland), also was aware of this prophecy; when Henri challenged the earl to a joust, the earl declined. But Henri would have none of that; he commanded the earl to joust with him.
It is likely that there were several jousts before the final one that killed the king. Supposedly, eyewitnesses claim the disaster occurred on the second clash between the two, though I have heard claims that it was the third. Regardless, Henri lingered for about eleven days, then died. It was a very cruel, very painful death.
Tard le monarque se viendra repentir
De n’avoir mis a mort son aduersaire :
Mais viendra bien à plus hault consentir
Que tout son fang par mort fera deffaire.
The monarch was Henri III. The religious wars were raging in France. His chief adversary was Henri Duc de Guise. The phase was known as the War of the Three Henries – the third Henri was Henri Bourbon de Navarre who was the true beneficiary of this event.
Guise had become all powerful. King Henri regretted having not done away with Guise earlier, but his mother, Catherine de Medici, would not allow it. Now, Catherine was dying. Henri decided on a bold stroke. The Duc and his brother, the Cardinal de Guise, were summoned to Blois. There, first the Duc and the next day the Cardinal were both assassinated.
Un peu devant que le soleil s’esconse,
Conflict donné, grand people dubieux :
Profligés, port marin ne faict responce,
Pont & sepulchre en deux estranges lieux.
Note on Translation: The 1605 Sève edition had the first line written differently: Un peu devant que le soleil s’absconse. – A little before the time of the sun’s setting. Esconse is old French for lantern while absconse is setting. Now setting does make sense and gives it a very nice meaning. But the earlier word has a different meaning that was harder to understand in those days. With our knowledge of today, a few possibilities are available, one of which is terrifying – think nuclear. Also, the last line: Pont is normally translated for Bridge, but in this context, and next to the clearly religious sepulcher, I have opted for the other translation – Pontificate, or Papacy. It is almost unbelievable that Nostradamus would write it this way during his life and then have it changed to be presented after he died. I therefore think that Sève edited the quatrain in his edition, a common habit of his.
The key is the first line. That this is not the sun is obvious because why would Nostradamus write about the sun’s lantern when the sun is quite obvious. However, there are two interesting possibilities. Concerning the first possibility, the sun represents efficient government, especially that of a monarchy. The sun’s lantern would therefore refer to a future ruler of the French. Concerning the second and terrifying possibility, the sun’s lantern would represent the forces that give the sun light and heat – thermonuclear fusion. The sun’s lantern would therefore represent a thermonuclear bomb.
The timing will be the fourth line. Not since the Avignon Exile has the Papacy had its seat outside of the city of Rome. There are, however, numerous predictions that this will happen in the future. Based on my calculations, it will occur in the very near future. Unfortunately, the exact timing is barred from my eyes.
Le Sol & l’aigle au victeur paroistront :
Response vaine au vaincu l’on asseure :
Par cor ne crys harnois n’arresteront
Vaindicte, paix par mort si acheve à l’heure.
The sun is the monarchy. It is also the church. The eagle is the Eagle of the United States. The victor is Britain, who stood alone in the fight against Adolf Hitler. The vanquished are the Germans, ruined by their adherence to the lusts of Adolf Hitler.
In 1945, the forces of the United Nations were closing around Nazi Germany. To any offer of Armistice, the reply of Unconditional Surrender, the trial and judgment of all the Nazis was all that was given. Germany finally capitulated. Peace was achieved, and a vindictive spirit was unleashed on the defeated. In Nuremberg and other places, most of the high ranking Nazis were tried in sham courts that created laws that had never existed, arbitrarily imposed judgments for Germans violating laws that were also clearly violated by the victorious allies, and even condemned a few who were clearly considered to be honorable. Most of the defendants were guilty of hideous crimes and even the defense attorneys, in shame for what their countrymen did do, were thankful to the courts for the exposition of justice given. Yet the sham remained. Most of the defendants were executed, some were imprisoned.
However, by 1950, the horns were sounded for arming Germany again, this time to stand up against the Communists of the Soviet Union. No martial cries came out of anyone’s lips however – none were needed or desired. Of the ones imprisoned by the Nazi trials, some, even the most obviously nazified ones, were released if they could be of any use in rebuilding western Germany to stand up to the armed might of the Soviet Union and its subject states. This final act demonstrated the vanity of the reply of the United Nations to Nazi Germany in 1944-45.
De nuict dans lict le supresme estrangle,
Pour trop avoir subjourné blond esleu,
Par troys l’empire subroge exancle,
A mort mettra carte, pacquet ne leu.
The third line strongly indicates the replacement of the Second French Empire with the Third Republic. If true, then the third line should read: By the third the exhausted empire replaced. That said, Napoléon was not strangled. And just who the blond elect is, I have absolutely no idea. The last line seems nonsensical.
Almost certainly, this is the future. But how far in the future? Since the quatrains go to the year 3797, most likely very far.
La trombe faulse disimulant folie,
Fera Bisance un changement de loys :
Hystra d’Egypte qui veult qui l’on deflie,
Edict changement monnoyes & aloys.
The trumpet that dissimulated madness was the trumpet of war. The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria. Those out of Egypt were the British and French forces, who wanted what the Turks had, the lands of the Middle East. The result of the war for the Ottomans was the Treaty of Sèvres, which officially broke up the empire.
But the occupation of Istanbul, the capital of the Ottomans, by an admittedly greedy English-French occupation provoked a backlash. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, a military leader of exceptionally great talent, the Turkish War of Independence was waged. By 1922, the occupying armies had been evicted and a new parliament changed the laws permanently by replacing the Sultanate with the Republic. Mustafa Kemal became the first leader, introducing many reforms. He was presented with the honorific name Atatürk (Father of the Turks) by the Turkish Parliament in 1934, an honorific he certainly deserved.