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Bosseu sera esleu par le conseil,
Plus hideux monstre en terre n’apperceu,
Le coup volant crevera l’oeil,
Le traistre au roy pour fidele receu.
Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, was probably furious with Nostradamus when this came out in 1555. His hunched shoulder gave the appearance of a hunchback and everyone who read it was convince that this quatrain could apply to nobody else. They also kept finding reasons why it could not possibly apply to him: Louis was a very verile and handsome man; his deformity was mild which ironically adding to his appeal – how could he be a monster? And he was in in the full confidence of his king, a trusted and faithful servant and advisor; that he would become a traitor was considered absurd.
Yet the quatrain was accurate. Towards the end of his life, during the terrible religious wars, he accepted a military position offered to him by a council of Huguenot nobles. He was a brilliant general and a threat to the crown. At the battle of Jarnac, where he fought against royalist forces in complete betrayal to the royal authority, his leg was shattered and he was unable to move around much. A captain of Henri de Anjou’s guard approached Louis after he had surrendered and treacherously shot him, putting out his metaphorical eye, exactly as the quatrain predicted.
L’enfant naistra à deux dents à la gorge,
Pierres en Tuscie par pluie tomberont :
Peu d’ans ne sera bled ne orge,
Pour saouler ceux quie de faim failliront.
Note: Most commentators translate the first line as two teeth in the mouth, mainly because that makes more sense. But mouth is gueule, not gorge, which is a narrow pass, gorge and throat! Though it is remotely possible that Nostradamus was wrong, one must remember that Michael Nostradamus was a Doctor of Physique, trained and accredited in Montpellier. Nostradamus was too much the skilled doctor to be fooled into believing a mouth was a throat. If he, a doctor of physique (medieval term for what we now call a doctor of medicine) claimed that the teeth were in the throat, then they will be in the throat, however improbable it seems to be! Stranger abnormalities have happened. As this is dealing with an issue that Nostradamus would have some expertise in, I am going to side with the doctor on this one.
That said, it is possible that the medical reference is metaphorical rather than literal. The reference of the first line may not refer to an actual child but rather to a group that could not chew up and digest what it was doing simply because of how it was structured – it would be designed with its teeth in its throat, a clearly impossible situation. The two teeth could refer to two very important people, leaders maybe, who blunder about doing the wrong things. Until this quatrain is fulfilled, or shown to be false, one must keep such precautionary thoughts in mind.
This could have been fulfilled. If so, then I freely admit that I do not know what it is talking about. It also could be a bad quatrain. Nostradamus did write a few of them, he was not infailable. That said, the general famine that Nostradamus sees coming is the most likely time this will happen.
Gents d’alentour de Tarn, Loth & Garonne,
Gardes les monts Apennies passer :
Vostre tombeau pres de Rome & d’Ancóne,
Le noir poil crespe sera trophee dresser.
The Black Frizzled Beard of line 4 dictates that this has to be the future.
Quand l’animal à l’homme domestique,
Apres grans peines & saults viendra parler,
De fouldre à vierge sera simaleficque,
De terre prinse & suspendue en l’air.
I must admit, the first two lines are a curiosity to me, unless it is a direct reference to more modern inventions like the telephone, radio and television. We must remember that Nostradamus had no names for radio, television or even telephones, let alone the wireless kind that is so prevalent today, so I cannot discount the probability that the good doctor is here trying to describe what to him is indescribable. But if this supposition is correct, then this is a broad quatrain dealing with a specific thing – electricity and its miraculous uses. Nobody in his days knew that electricity was the cause of lightning, which was so terribly destructive when it hit. It was like a wild animal, destructive, uncaged and uncontrolled. But a few centuries later, with the advent of the work of great scientists and inventors, not only would buildings be protected with lightning rods catching the electricity and channeling it into the earth, but radio, television, and even wireless telephones would utilize electricity by literally suspending it in the air, causing great boxes we call radio and television to “speak.”
Les cinq estranges entrés dedans le temple
Leur sang viendra la terre prophaner :
Aux Thoulousains sera bien dur exemple,
D’un qui viendra ses loix exterminer.
Toulouse is in France. This could represent just the inhabitants of the city, though I suspect it is more in line with representing the whole of France. Just what the temple is, I am uncertain.
If it is fulfilled, then this would likely refer to the supporters of Louis XVIII or Charles X, both of whom preferred the absolute authority of the lawless ancien régime. Louis endured the shock of Napoléon’s 100 days and therefore ameliorated his stance in order to retain power, but Charles hate the laws that Napoléon had instituted. This is certainly possible, but I suspect the quatrain refers to a future event.
La ciel (de Plancus la cité) nous presaige,
Par clers insignes & par estoiles fixes,
Que de son change subit s’aproche l’aage,
Ne pour son bien, ne pour ses malefices.
The reference to Plancus can only be a reference to Lucius Munatius Plancus, a shifty general who lived in the last days of the Roman Republic and saw the beginning of the Roman Empire. It is reputed that he founded the two cities of Augusta Raurica and Lyon. Since Augusta Raurica is in ruins, the city of Plancus must mean the city of Lyon.
Nostradamus is here talking about a sudden change that occurs to the city of Lyon. Please note that the change is not for the good of the city, but it also does not harm the city, it is simply a change.
Le vieux monarche deschassé de son regne
Aux Orients son secours ira querre :
Pour peur des croix pliera son enseigne,
En Mitilene ira par port et terre.
Mitylene is a city on the Isle of Lesbos, in the Agean Sea. Beyond that, I have no idea what this means.
Sept cents captifs estaches rudement,
Pour la moitié meurtrir, donné la fort,
Le proche espoir viendra si promptement,
Mais non si tost qu’une quinzieme mort.
I cannot figure this one out. It seems that out of seven hundred captives, about 365 are targeted to be killed. Hope comes quickly, but soon enough for 15 who are dead when the aid arrive.
This could be an event that occurred right before the end of the Second World War. It would likely mean that out of about 700 prisoners, the German SS decides to execute about 365 of them, simply to get rid of them. However they are stopped after 15 due to the extremely rapid advance of the United Nations forces. It is certainly a plausible explanation, but I do not know of any specific events that can fulfill this quatrain.
Regne Gaulois tu seras bien changé,
En lieu estrange est translaté l’empire :
En autres meurs, & loix feras rangé,
Rouan & Chartres te feront bien du pire.
Napoléon Bonaparte abdicated in 1814 and again in 1815, his nephew, Louis Napoléon Bonaparte was declared abdicated in 1870. The first time, Napoléon was made emperor of the tiny isle of Elba. The second time he was sent as a prisoner to St. Helena. Louis Napoléon exiled himself to Britain. Because of the nature of the abdications, it is the exile to Elba that makes the most sense and is the most likely fulfillment of this quatrain.
The laws lined up were the laws of restored Bourbon France and the laws of Elba, both underwent significant change – Napoléon making changes for the betterment of the people of Elba, Louis XVIII for the betterment of himself and the restored nobility.
That said, the last line is critical. It is likely that Rouen and Chartres stand for all of France, both being near each other in Northern France. It is true that in 1814, France was exhausted from trying to support Napoléon, so the cities could have opposed Napoléon at that time.
La republicque de la grand cité,
A grand rigueur ne vouldra confentir :
Roy sortir hors par trompette cité,
L’eschelle au mur, la cité repentir.
The king is Napoléon III of France. He abdicated by his surrender at Sedan to the Germans. France revolted and established the Third Republic. But what is not so well known is that Paris established a different government: The republic of the great city, the Paris Commune.
The new Republic and the Paris Commune vied for dominion over France. The Commune did not want to consent to joining the Republic. The Republic, fighting to establish its legitimacy throughout France, fought hard. The Republic also had the support of Prussia, who wanted a peaceful France on its borders. The two sides clashed in Paris in April 2, 1941. Neither side truly wanted war, they both simply wanted dominance. It was the Republic that won. The Commune was crushed and the reprisals began. Pent up emotions over the failure of the French to defeat the Prussians found an outlet against the defeated members of the Commune; over 20,000 were executed. So great was the vengeance that the Prussians, who had supported the Republic, found themselves aiding fleeing members of Paris out of personal revulsion over the excess the new Republic utilized to establish its control over the central city.
It must be acknowledged that the Commune was not the idealize government its supporters claimed it was. It is true that the Republic never gave the Commune a chance to show its full measure, but the freedom it supported was fully expressed by the citizens of Paris, the necessary consequence was that anarchy crept into the picture as opposing forces clashed. To maintain its power, the Commune was forced to establish harsher and more repressive measures. The city therefore had great reasons to repent when the soldiers of the Republic arrived at the city perimeter (ladders to the wall) and not just because the Republic was imposing its will on the populace.