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Chef d’Ares, Jupiter & saturne,
Dieu eternel quelles mutations!
Puis par log fiecle son maling temps retourne,
Gaul & Itale quelles esmotions!
Note: Chef d’Aries can be read one of two ways. 1) the chief of Aries, i.e. Mars. 2) the head of Aries, i.e. the beginning. It is therefore a triple conjunction of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn or two planets (Jupiter and Saturn) in the first decant (ten degrees) of Aries. Gaul is of course ancient Gaul. It could stand for France or include the northern part of Italy. Here it does not matter, as Italy in its entirety is named and included with Gaul.
In January 15 of 1703, the Chief of Aries (Mars) Jupiter and Saturn were conjoined, and all three planets were in the first decant (first ten degrees, or the head) of Aries, fulfilling both interpretations. The War of the Spanish Succession, which involved French arrogance and a great dispute over Italy, was in full fury.
Les deux malins de Scorpion conjoinct
Le grand seigneur meurtry dedans sa salle :
Peste à l’eglise par le nouveou roy joinct,
L’Europe basse & Septentrionale.
The title of Seigneur was an old French title that means Lord; it was applied to any feudal lord. A king would be a feudal lord, or seigneur, of his dukes, who were themselves seigneurs to their barons. It is also the hereditary title of the British leaders of the Isle of Sark, in the Channel Isles. There may have been others. The two maligns are Mars and Saturn; the quatrain says they are joined in Scorpio, which happens about once every thirty years on the average. The quatrain means that a Seigneur or Lord is murdered in his home while Mars and Saturn are conjoined in Scorpio.
The Lord is Selim III. He was deposed in 1807 and killed in 1808. Saturn and Mars conjoined in Scorpio in September of 1807, after Selim had been deposed but before he was executed, so the timing is relatively close. He was murdered in the Seraglio, the home he lived in with his wives and concubines.
The king newly joined refers to Napoléon Bonaparte. In 1804 he had become Emperor of the French, in 1805 he had become King of Italy. He was a plague to the Catholic Church, though he also turned against the Calvanist Church as well.
The last line, while curious, was descriptive. Northern Europe was relatively free of Napoléon, the rest was laid low under his rule.
Las qu’on verra grand peuple tormenté,
Et la Loy saincte en totale ruine:
Par autres loix toute Chiestienté,
Quand d’or, d’argent trouve nouvelle mine
The Sacred Law is the Catholic Law, the law of the church. There have been few times when Catholicism has been suppressed, but only one time in Western Europe it was completely disbanded. Not even Nazi Germany, foul as it was, suspended the Catholic Church. That dubious honor belongs to the French Revolution.
But what really saddened Nostradamus, for his sorrow is quite apparent in the first line, was that the French did not limit it to just the Catholic law. They destroyed also the Protestant laws. They rejected all forms of Christianity, as Nostradamus wrote in the third line regarding other laws throughout all Christendom.
Without a Catholic or Protestant church, the lands and possessions of all the Christian denominations were confiscated by the Committee of Public Safety. This would be a major temporary source of revenue for the Republic.
Deux revoltz faicts du maling falcigere,
De regne & siecles faict permutations :
Le mobil signe à son endroict si ingere;
Aux deux egaux & d’inclination.
I can only think of one time when two leaders were deposed by revolutions, the first of which simply replaced one king for another of equal, indeed almost identical, moral inclination. Charles X of France was deposed by the 1830 revolution. He abdicated in favor of his son, but his distant nephew, Louis Philippe of the cadent branch of Orleans assumed the throne.
Charles X had wanted to rule France autocratically. As it turned out, so did Louis Philippe; he was merely sneakier about getting it. But by 1848 it was obvious he was on the road to removing all legislative bodies from France and installing himself as supreme autocrat, exactly as Charles X had tried to do. This resulted in the revolution of 1848.
All the first revolt did was to rearrange the pieces. The result were permutations, simply a rearrangement of the articles. It was not an overall change.
Sous l’opposite climat Babylonique
Grand sera de sang effusions :
Que terre & mer, air, ciel sera inique,
Sectes, faim, regnes, pestes, confusion.
The climate of Babylon is hot and dry. The opposite of that climate is cold and wet, sometimes actually frozen. The opposite climate of the desert of Babylon is found in the icy cold wetness of Russia.
Also note the third line. The iniquitous were those who fought in the war to end all wars. Meanness, greed and stupidity, as well as a rank reliance of militarism over civilian thought, spread the war rapidly. Please be advised that this is a very condensed version of what is written other places, but it dictates the desire of almost everyone to fight. And if the following flow of events confuses you, please be advised that it confused many great statesmen of the day, exactly as the fourth line indicates: Serbian radicals, seeking a Greater Serbia with themselves at the head of the Slaves in the Balkans, assassinated Franz Ferdinand of Austria. To back up the Austrians, the Germans stupidly granted Austria a blank check. The Austrians under Count Leopold von Berchtold, confronted Serbia and gave them a list of 10 demands. Serbia accepted 8 of them, only partially accepted one, and rejected one. That was not good enough for the Count who then declared war on Serbia. (It must be pointed out that a few weeks later, when the emperor, Franz Joseph, saw the demands and the Serbian reply, he is reputed to have stated: “Why are we at war? We got everything we wanted!”) Of course, this involved Russia, the self-appointed guardian of Serbia – they mobilized. Germany saw the mobilization and reacted, mobilizing and delivering an ultimatum to Russia that was promptly rejected. Told that a partial mobilization was impossible, Nicholas II of Russia relented and ordered a full mobilization. Wilhelm II reacted and ordered a full mobilization. Moltke, the German Chief of Staff, directed the mobilization not against Russia but against France. Wilhelm ordered the troops to be directed towards Russia, but Moltke refused. Wilhelm II, when confronted with the firm intransigence of Moltke, relented and basically let his subordinate have his way. To confound the situation, the British delivered a proposal that would have limited the war to only the eastern theater, but soon afterwards backed out, claiming their proposal was “misunderstood.” It is likely, however that France would have joined the war anyway; France wanted to fight Germany. Britain told France they would back them up. The Austrians attacked Serbia. The Russians responded militarily. Germany declared war on Russia and prepared to launch their eastern and western campaigns. The Germans demanded passage through Belgium, which was refused, so the Germans simply attacked Belgium as they also declared war on Belgium and France. Because of this, Britain joined France.
Also note the third line: on land & sea, air and sky. This refers to the four areas where fighting occurred during this war. The fighting of armies on the land and of navies on the sea has roots going back into ancient times. What was new were the fighting in the air through gas attacks and the fighting in the skies. The Germans were the first to use gas, but quickly found out that its use on the Western Front was a severe liability – the wind blew it back to them. That of course only aided the French, who responded with lethal doses of the gas on German lines. But in the Eastern Front, the Germans used gas with remarkable success, the wind kept the deadly air going farther back into the Russian rear. And aviation was used in all sides of the Great War. Most history books that talk about aviation in the First World War deal exclusively with the Western Front. But aviation, just as deadly, occurred in the Eastern Front as well. Igor I. Sikorsky built the Ilya Mourometz, the first four engine airplane that could deliver bombs deep in enemy territory. They also had tactical and observation aircraft and, like their western allies, would develop fighter aircraft.
The war to end all wars ended with the end of the three inept emperors who fought on the eastern front: Franz Joseph of Austria, Nicholas II of Russia, and Wilhelm II of Germany. But confusion reigned. The rise of Communism in Russia produced a source of more conflict, hunger and pain.
Vous verrés tost & tard faire grand change,
Horreurs extremes & vindications :
Que si la lune conducte par son ange,
Le ceil s’approache des inclinations.
The key is in the last line. Just what it means, I have no idea.
Par grand discord la trombe tremblera,
Accord rompu dressant la teste au ceil :
Bouche sanglante dans le sang nagera,
Au sol sa face ointe de laict & meil.
One of the most famous quatrains, it perfectly describes the execution of one of the most inept monarchs in history.
Louis XVI was not an evil man, he was not an evil king; he was just so very incompetent. Many of his followers were exasperated with him because he could not do the one thing he was supposed to do – be a king. He could not lead, he could not command, he could not compromise, he could not foresee and he was given to bouts of depression.
The French Revolution saw the king forced to become a constitutional monarch. This was the agreement made, under the Legislative Assembly it is what happened. But later that year, a constitutional crisis, coupled with the disastrous flight to Varennes, compelled the French legislature to break that promise. The Republic was proclaimed and the National Convention took control. Under the influence of Robespierre and Saint-Just, the king was found guilty of collaborating with the Prussian and Austrian enemy and condemned to death.
The scene of the execution is well known. As Louis mounted the scaffold, he was dignified and calm, if royally haughty and arrogant. He was resigned to his fate but definitely objected to it. He pardoned his executioners, stated his willingness to die and his hope that his country would be spared the fate that was befalling him. In this way, he “looked up to the heavens.”
The guillotine did its job. As per the standard guillotining, blood swam in the mouth. The head itself was bloody. According to one report, after the king’s head fell into the basket, people ran up to wipe some of the blood onto their own handkerchiefs or other linens. The head was then tossed aside, to lie on the ground with the other heads that were executed that day.
Trenché le ventre naistra avec deux trestes,
Et quatre bras: quelques an sentier viura :
Lour qua Alquilloye celebrera ses festes,
Fossen, Turin, chief Fetrare fuyura.
The cutting of the belly could only be the deposing of the King of France. Louis XVI was a mediocre king at best who would have been better placed as an alderman or something where leadership was not necessary. When he was deposed, what was born was a monster.
The two heads were the Jacobites and the Monarchists. Neither wanted an absolute monarchy. The Jacobites wanted to abolish the monarchy altogether and establish a republic. The monarchists wanted to establish a constitutional monarchy, somewhat in the line of the British. For a while, the monarchists had the upper hand, but eventually the Jacobites were in control.
The four arms were the National Constitute Assembly of 1789, the Legislative Assembly of 1791, the National Convention of 1792 and the Directory of 1795.
Though line 3 is ambiguous to me, line 4 is obvious. The revolutionary French were able to militarily campaign successfully in Italy, thanks to General Napoléon Bonaparte.
Les exiles deportés dans les isles,
Au changement d’un plus cruel monarque
Seront meurtrys: & mis deux les scintilles,
Qui de parler ne seront estés parques.
The isles are normally the Britannic Isles, including Ireland, though not always. The crueler monarch could be Robespierre, Hitler, Stalin, or someone else. But it seems that it is the exiles that are killed. The third line I have literally translated it as put to the glitter, but many commentators have translated it differently. Theophilus de Garenciéres translated it as put to the fiery sparks, which may be the best translation possible. The last line is completely ambiguous to me.
I must leave this to the reader to figure out.
Un empereur naistra pres d’Italie
Qui à l’Empire sera venu bien cher,
Diront avec quez gens il se ralie,
Qu’on trouuera moins prince que boucher.
The last two lines are ironically written, even though they are totally true. Princes and kings have always delighted in that age old sport of kings – war. Even in Nostradamus’ day, King Henri II of France and King Felipe II of Spain made war whenever possible. Napoléon Bonaparte was merely better than the others at the sport of kings, his friends were all marshals and generals of France. For this he was called a butcher.
Napoléon was born on the isle of Corsica, which is near, but not part of, Italy. He cost the French Empire, which he created, a great price in money and in French blood. Those around him all the time were not princes of realms (kings and dukes) but generals and marshals. One, Ney, was a commoner, lowering the standing of the emperor in the eyes of the rest of Imperial Europe.