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Vers Aquitaine par insults Britaniques,
De par eux mesmes grandes incursions.
Pluies, gelées seront terroines iniques,
Port Selyn fortes sera invasions.
The Aquitaine is a large region in south western France, bordering on the Atlantic Ocean, It is renown due to the fact that for a long time it was kings of England, not kings of France, who ruled it. In fact, one time when the French kings had finally conquered it, the Aquitaine revolted and asked for the English kings to return.
The first two lines are confusing, but indicate that the French and the British will be invaded due to British deeds. Port Selyn is often interpreted as another name for the Crescent Port, or a port of Islam, though Edgar Leoni indicates the Bay of Biscay which, while unusual, does fit the quatrain. Still, though there have been wars between France and Britain, I do not see how this quatrain could possibly be fulfilled in the past.
Almost assuredly, this occurs in the future.
La teste blue fera la teste blanche,
Autant de mal que France a faict leur bien,
Mort à l’anthene pendu fuis la branche,
Quand prins des siens le Roy dira combien.
Note on Translation: Though I cannot find it, Anthene on line 3 is traditionally translated as sail yard, which I have retained. That said, I have found translations that translate it into antenna, or pole. This could be an unusual situation where Nostradamus tried to immitate a word - he may have felt he had no other choice in the matter.
The white heads are traditionally the soldiers of the Ancient Regime. Not only was the French flag lily white, the soldiers wore white as well. The French Revolution changed the colors. Now the tri-color was the flag. Key to the quatrain, the new color of the soldiers uniform was blue.
Nostradamus here says that the supporters of the Republican government did as much harm to France as the French nation had done them good. In a very real way, this is the literal truth. The revolution had done great good to people like Danton and Robespierre but they increasingly responded with violence and murder to impose their ways upon France.
The third line is ambiguous to me. However, the fourth line is quite obvious. When Louis XVI was arrested for treason he never objected. As far as I know, what he actually said when arrested did not come down to us, but the reply of “how much” may be accurate.
Pour la chaleur solaire sus la mer,
De Negrepont les poissons demis cuits :
Les habitans les viendront entamer,
Quand Rod & Gennes leur faudra biscuit.
The first line sounds remarkably like a nuclear or thermonuclear explosion. The Isle of Rhodes and the city of Genoa are at very different locations on the Mediterranean Sea, indicating either much of the northern part of the sea, or the entire sea area, will be affected. Negrepont literally translates into Euboia, the large isle immediately to the east of Attica in Greece. This quatrain is likely tied to the 21st quatrain of this century.
Depuis Monech insques au pres de Secile,
Toute la plage demourra desolée,
Il ny aura fauxbourg, cite, ne ville,
Que par Barbares pillée foix & vollée.
For a period of time after the battle of Lepanto, even indeed before that epic battle, the northwest African states of Algiers and Tunis practiced the ancient art of piracy. The Barbary Pirates, as they were known, concentrated their efforts in the western Mediterranean, which included then entire coastline from the Straits of Gibraltar (bordered on Monaco) to the Isle of Sicily. They would thrive till just after the Napoléonic Wars, when the British fleet, following the example of the upstart U.S. fleet, went in and fought the pirates. Piracy would continue, however diminished, until the French went in and forcibly colonized Algeria, Tunis and the other Barbary states, ending the practice at the point of the sword.
Qu’en dans poisson, fer & letre ensermée,
Hors fortira qui puys fera la guerre :
Aura par mer sa classe bien ramée,
Apparoissant pres de Latine terre.
The description of line 1 refers to submarines. If people have any doubts, please remember that Nostradamus, having no name for a submarine, had to become relatively descriptive using what words he did have. Submarines do resemble fish in a way, the iron are the weapons of war while the letters are the orders of war, so the description is accurate. In the Second World War, several countries built submarines, but only one had them operate by the Italian (Latin) shores. German U-boats fought in the Mediterranean sea, sinking many allied boats. The distance they had to travel was far, originating in Konigsberg (at the furthest) traveling around Europe, through the British controlled Strait of Gibraltar and finally reaching port in Italy. Of course, the one who went out to make war was no less than Adolf Hitler.
Aupres des portes & dedans deux cités,
Seront deux fleaux & oncques n’aperceu un tel :
Faim dedans peste, de ser hors gens bourés,
Crier secours au grand Dieu immortel.
The majority of Nostradamus’ quatrains occur in Europe with a focus on France. There are some quatrains that deal with the Middle East because of how it has and will effect Europe and France. A few quatrains deal with the United States because of how that country has interacted with France. There was even one quatrain that dealt with Mexico, but only because the event described concerned the Mexican government of Emperor Maximilian which was imposed on Mexico and supported by France and French troops. It is exceedingly rare when he goes outside of France or nations that France has a strong interaction with. But due to the importance of the events that happened in Japan, events described in this quatrain, he did.
The two ports are the port cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two scourges are the two nuclear explosions, each of which came from differently designed bombs. The bomb that dropped on Hiroshima was a dirty bomb, the Little Boy, which used Uranium as the explosive material. The bomb that dropped on Nagasaki was an efficient bomb, the Fat Man, which used Plutonium as the explosive material. Though they used different means and materials, both were nuclear bombs and achieved the same results, though the Hiroshima was a dirtier result.
The results of both explosions were devastating. Radiation burns, visually similar in many ways to many of the plagues of old, crippled hundreds of thousands of survivors. The damage was widespread and starvation (famine) took hold of many others. People cried out to the gods for relief, especially those that became sick with radiation sickness, to no avail.
Even the means of delivering the bombs was explained, the steel of war – the bombs were delivered by military aircraft.
Entre plusieurs aux isles deportés,
L’un estre nay à deux dans en la gorge :
Mourront de faim les arbres esbrotés,
Pour eux neuf roy novel edict leur forge.
The isles are most likely the British Isles, but I cannot be certain. Line 3 sounds like a famine is occurring during the fulfillment of this quatrain, so it could be the near future. The king could be a literal king or a dictator – Hitler would a king according to Nostradamus. I will have to leave this to the ingenuity of the reader to figure out.
Temples sacrés prime facon Romaine,
Reieteront les goffes fondements,
Prenant leurs loix premieres & humaines,
Chassant, non tout, des saints les cultements.
Though the Catholic and Orthodox churches do not actually worship the saints, their veneration of saints does borderline it. The two churches do acknowledge that God alone is to be worshiped, yet the participants do pray to the saints, though the forms are always requests to intervene with God about certain things. The number of saints is becoming very large, some saints are saints for very stupid reasons. Nostradamus is here indicating that in the future many of whom are considered saints today will be rejected in the future. The number of saints will be vastly pruned with few, most notably the apostles, remaining. It also indicates that the church will return to a large degree to the original laws of Christianity.
Neuf ans le regne le maigre en paix tiendra,
Puis il cherra ensoif si sanguinaire :
Pour loy grand peuple sans foy & loy mourra,
Tué par un beaucoup plus debonnaire.
Note: In what is one of the most accurate successes that Nostradamus has, he refused to focus on the mostly symbolic symbol of President and focused on the more important and powerful position of Chancellor. It is possible that he figured this out from the fact that Hitler would use the Chancellery and not the Presidency to become the absolute leader of Germany,
Adolf Hitler was the obvious leader after the July 1932 presidential elections. Though he lost the presidential race to the aged and distinguished Field Marshal Von Hindenburg, it was quite obvious to everyone that he was the true winner of the 1932 elections. The Nazi party was now the largest party, no government could be formed without the support of the Nazis and the Nazis would accept nothing less than the Chancellorship. Hindenburg tried to form two governments without him, first with Franz von Papen, the other with Kurt von Schleicher, both failed due to Nazi opposition. Finally, in 1933, Hindenburg capitulated and, with Papen as vice Chancellor, accepted the reality of power by appointing Hitler as Chancellor.
From July 1932 to July 1941 was a period of nine years. Almost exactly nine years passed from the day Hitler proved his power in the 1932 election before the great bloodletting of the Second World War began. Before Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, his victories were swift and relatively bloodless. The speed of his conquests minimized the death both sides had to suffer. His conquests of Austria and Czeckoslovakia were completely bloodless, and while the Poles, Norwegans, lowlanders and French suffered terrible casualty figures, they were still very light when compared to the four million dead in the First World War.
It all changed with Operation Barbarossa. The people who were killed were the German people; millions of Germans were killed in the cold vastness of the Russian Front. And the debonair one is Joseph Stalin. True, Stalin was just as cold and as ruthless a dictator as Hitler was, yet Stalin had a debonair appearance that Hitler never had.
Avant long temps le tout sera rangé
Nous esperons un siecle bien senestre :
L’estat des masques & des seulz bien changé
Peu trouveront qu’a son rang vucille estre.
Note on Translation: Esperons on the second line is a twist, a noun used as a verb. Esperons is esperon, or éperon in the modern French, it means spur, something jutting out. A literal translation is We spur a sinister century. In English, the best translation in this context is to push towards, which is what I have used.
The masked ones refers to the nobility because they often wore masks at masquerade parties they threw to relieve their boredom while the lonely ones are monks and clergy who take vows of chastity, therefore, the third line refers to the nobility and the clergy. The state of these two being changed would then have to refer to a time when their status is changed. The last line, indicating that few want to join them, or remain among them, indicates a major drop in status.
This has to refer to the French Revolution. The state of the nobility and the clergy was pummeled hard in the early days of the French Revolution. Few remained with the clergy, and many of the nobility were executed.
The first line could refer to one of several things. It could refer to the organizing of laws that occurred in Napoléonic France. It could also refer to the lining up of people to be executed during the reign of la guillotine. Finally, it could refer to the lining up of wars that are suddenly marked and inevitable, mainly because of the hostility the house of Hapsburg had for France. Knowing Nostradamus, it would not surprise me to find that it refers to all of these.
The remaining question concerns the sinister century? Still, the answer is quite obvious. Nostradamus came from a very religious age, though he was not (as it proved) a confirmed Catholic, he was still a confirmed Christian. To him, an age of atheism would be abhorrent, especially as he felt that it was the churches that reigned in the worst practices that man could perform. I must admit, he has a point – for all their brutality, the religious churches did check some of the baser human instincts.