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Cela du reste de sang non espandu
Venise quiert secours estre donné,
Apres avoir bien long temps attendu,
Cité livrée au premier cornet sonné.
There were several times when Venice fell to opponents since Nostradamus wrote this. The first was May 12, 1797 when it fell to Napoléon. The second was August 27, 1849 when Austrian troops entered the city following the surrender of the 22nd. The last occurred on April 29, 1945 when it fell to New Zealand troops. This sounds like the first of those conquests.
The Doge of Venice, Ludovico Manin, was a man of peace who had let the defenses of the city decay. He had become Doge just before the French Revolution erupted and failed to realize the significance of what was occurring.
During the time of the quatrain, Napoléon was approaching to fight the Venetians. Ludovico tried for a long time to adhere to strict neutrality. Parlays were sent back and forth. But unknown to Ludovico, Napoléon had signed a treaty with the Austrians that gave Venice to them. Of course, there was the minor problem that Venice was independent, not yet under control of the French.
Napoléon’s general, Junot, issued an ultimatum on the 15th of April, an ultimatum that was rejected. The treaty between the French and Austrians was signed on the 17th. A French fleet entered Venetian held waters on the 25th; the Venetians succeeded in sinking a French ship, but with only a small fleet could not resist the power of the French. Still, the Venetians resisted until the 12th of May when, with a French army approaching, Ludovico suddenly surrendered the city and abdicated. His subsequent actions indicates he was very bitter over the incident.
Par mort la France prendra voyage à faire,
Classe par mer, marchera monts Pyrenées,
Hespaigne en trouble, marcher gent militaire :
Des plus grand dames en France emmenées.
Nostradamus here describes the root reasons for the War of the Spanish Succession. The death is the death of the Spanish King, Charles II, who had no direct heir. For a number of years, he tried to deal with the issue of his successor, with no results. Spain had belonged to the Hapsburg’s for several centuries, the Hapsburg heir was the Archduke Charles of Austria. However, a series of marriages between the Spanish Hapsburg’s and the French Capetian’s had established a Capetian heir: Louis the Dauphin, firstborn son of Louis XIV of France. These marriages, the taking of ladies in France by the Spanish as well as the taking of Spanish ladies into France explain the last line: Henri II had given his daughter Elizabeth to Felipe II, and Marie de Medici (wife of Henry IV) later gave another Elizabeth, this time, daughter of Henri IV of France, to Felipe IV of Spain. Louis XIV was the son of Louis XIII and his wife Anne of Austria, who was the daughter of Felipe III of Spain. But the most important connection was the marriage of Louis XIV to Maria Theresa, daughter of Felipe IV; this made the Dauphin the most direct heir to the Spanish Throne. Because of these marriages, Charles gave his preference to a descendant of Louis XIV.
France and England would debate several treaties, trying to impose their agreement upon Austria and Spain. But all the discussions were ultimately futile: The Austrians wanted Spain’s Italian possessions and Charles refused to divide his kingdom for any reason, nullifying each and every treaty France and England made concerning the Spanish succession.
Before Charles died, he named the Dauphin’s second son, Philippe, Duc de Anjou, as his heir, with the cevat that Philippe, who assumed the Spanish name Felipe V, and his descendants could never claim the French throne. This was a clever gambit and it might have worked – England might have accepted it and after Charles died, Louis took the gamble of accepting Charles will in its entirety. Unfortunately, Louis marched his troops across the Pyrenees and foolishly tried to isolate Spain from England; this roused William III of England who made common cause with the Austrians and the Netherlanders, starting the war.
D’Arras & Bourges, de Brodes grans enseignes,
Un plus grand nombre de Gascons batre à pied,
Ceux long du Rosne saigneront les Espaignes :
Proche du mont ou Sagonte s’assied.
Arras and Bourges are communes in France. The Rhone is the great southern river of France. Gascony is a region from France. Sagunto is a city in eastern Spain. Taken, it refers to a time when the French are in Spain, bleeding it through constant warfare.
This can only refer to the Peninsular War, known also as the Spanish War of Independence. Napoléon Bonaparte had made the political blunder of deposing the Spanish king, Charles IV, placing his brother Joseph Bonaparte onto the Spanish throne. The Spanish peasantry, the church, and nationalists, rose up in fury. Madrid rose up as well but the revolt there was quickly crushed.
Despite having a terrible army, the war started well for Spain. France was forced into a lengthy siege at Saragossa, a major city in the inland area of Aragon. In Portugal, the British landed in support of the Portuguese nation. The uprising became so acute and British interference so menacing that Napoléon himself went into Spain with the intent of crushing the Spanish and British. In a great pouring of Spanish blood, he succeeded in crushing the Spanish, but the Spanish, refusing to acknowledge defeat, began the guerilla war that would sap French strength. And he failed to crush the British who, under General John Moore, successfully escaped to Corunna where, after a pitched battle, they evacuated.
L’impotent prince faché, plaincts & querelles,
De rapts & pillé, par coqz & par libyques :
Grand est par terre, par mer infinies voilles,
Seul Italie sera chassant Celtiques.
The cock represents France in its martial glory. The Libyans are those of either the Italian colony in Africa, or the larger region that covered all of Northern Africa, except for Egypt. There were only two times that Italy was opposed by the French and the North Africans, both times occurred was while France had control of the colony of Algeria. This fact limits the focus to either the Italian Unification of 1860-70 or the Second World War. The infinite sails eliminates the Italian Unification from consideration, leaving us with the Second World War. If there is any doubt, the mention that Italy is fighting the Celts, not the French, is confirmation: the Celtic peoples included not only the French, but the Britons of the Britannic Isle. As a result, it included France, Britain, and the nation that (in a way) came from both – the United States.
The impotent Prince is Benito Mussolini. After Italy sued for peace and deposed Mussolini, Adolph Hitler had rescued him and established the Italian Socialist Republic in Northern Italy with Mussolini as its head. Yet from the beginning it was not an Italian state but rather a puppet state of Germany. Mussolini seems to have realized it – his heart was no longer in the war. The complaints and quarrels refers to not only the Italians who opposed the puppet regime, it also refers to the Allies, the Celtic powers of Free France, Britain and the United States who fought up the Italian peninsula. Some of the Free French were Algerians, fulfilling the Libyan part of the Quatrain. Of course, the armies were immense, and the navies involved had so many ships that their number would have dwarfed the size of a fleet in Nostradamus’ days.
The part about Italy alone fighting the Celts refers to the fact that Italy was not in control of its destiny. The true power that governed most of Italy, at least until the Allies liberated the various areas, were the Germans. They were alone in fighting the Celtic nations in Northern and Central Italy.
Croix, paix, soubs un accomply divin verbe.
L’Espaigne & Gaule seront unis ensemble :
Grand clade proche, & combat tresacerbe,
Coeur si hardy ne sera qui ne tremble.
The ascension of Felipe V of Spain, grandson of Louis XIV of France, changed the balance of power in Europe. Spain, now under Bourbon rule, was now nominally tied to France instead of Hapsburg Austria. The divine word is the last will and testament of Charles II, who wanted his entire kingdom to go to one man, his chosen heir. The will of Charles was accomplished, but it would last only as long as the upcoming wr would allow it to last. The last two lines refer to the upcoming War of the Spanish Succession, which would ravage Europe for 13 years.
D’habits nouveaux apres faicte la treuve,
Malice tramme & machination :
Premier mourra qui en fera la preuve,
Couleur Venise insidiation.
The Italian Armistice was signed September 3, 1943. The new Badoglio government, which signed it, was the new clothes. But plotting and machinations still occurred in Italy. The Venetian conspiracy here refers to the rule by Mussolini in Northern Italy, the Italian Socialist Republic, under German power. The first to die was the liberty of the Italian nation – it became an occupied country and a battle zone, divided between the Allies of the United Nations in the south and the Germans in the north.
La mineur filz du grand & hay prince,
De lepre aura à vingt ans grande tache :
De dueil sa mere mourra bien triste & mince,
Et il mourra la ou toumbe cher lache.
The quatrain is most specific. A man of princely rank will rule a nation and will be hated. One of his younger sons will contact the disease of Leprosy, a progressive disease that eventually covers the skin, causes blindness and harms the limbs; this will occur when the son is about twenty years old. The mother wastes away and dies. The last line is curious. Leprosy was believed to cause flesh to fall off, yet Nostradamus, a doctor of his day, had to have known better. Was the last line a reference to Leprosy or was it a reference to a flesh eating disease?
There is only one possible historical solution, though I am uncertain as to how accurate it is. Benito Mussolini ruled Italy for twenty one years and his children from his wife, Rachele Guidi, were fairly well known. But what is not known or commonly accepted is that before he married Rachele, he had another wife, one that it seems he never divorced.
According to some sources, Ida Dalser was married to Mussolini in 1914, over a year before he married Rachele. Since there is no record of the two divorcing, it is almost certain that Benito became a bigamist when he married Rachele. Certainly the Italian government recognized his marriage to Ida and not Rachele during the First World War for a wartime pension was paid to Ida for her husband’s wartime service.
But the focus of this interpretation lays in the fact that Ida gave birth to Benito’s first son, Benito Albino Mussolini, and was treated shabbily by her husband. All records concerning the marriage and the birth were hunted down and destroyed. Ida herself died in an asylum on the isle of San Clemente in Venice. The official cause of death was brain hemorrhage, but anyone familiar with the way asylums were run in those days would be very aware that any and all patients there were treated horribly. Certainly Ida was a very sad person who very likely wasted away before she passed away in 1937.
Benito Albino Mussolini did not fare much better. He was told his mother was dead. Adopted as an orphan in 1931 he was given a decent education and, at a fairly young age enlisted in the Italian navy. But the fascists kept a tight eye on him throughout his life. Because he kept insisting he was the son of Benito Mussolini, he was eventually arrested and placed into an asylum in Mombello, located in the province of Milan. There, while little is known what happened, it is believed he was murdered when he was given coma inducing injections. He was twenty-six when he died.
Key to this interpretation are certain unknowns that Nostradamus may have been aware of but that the Fascists involved kept hidden. The point about the disease of loose flesh definitely does not refer to leprosy but could rather refer to what was done to him while he was in the asylum. He certainly was the son of a great and hated prince, as his father called himself Il Duce, the Duke, which is a declaration of princely rank and it is almost certain that his mother Ida wasted away in the asylum she was locked into.
As we do not know the condition of Benito Albino Mussolini’s body when he was finally killed, we cannot know if this quatrain does refer to this situation and is successful, refers to something else and is in the future or unknown, or is a failed quatrain.
La grand cité d’assault prompt & repentin,
Surprins de nuict, gardes interrompus :
Les excubies & veille sainct Quintin,
Trucidés gardes & les pourtails rompus.
The key is the third line. While there are many places with the name of Saint Quentin, the one in the modern Aisne department is the one that is referred to in this quatrain.
The city was defended by the Constable de Montmorency, one of the more important leaders of France. The Spanish forces were lead by Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy. The French fought well, but the defeat was total, bloody and resounding.
This is definitely one of Nostradamus’ early successes.
La chef du camp au milieu de la presle
D’un de fleche sera blessé aux cuisses,
Lors que Geneve en larmes & detresse,
Sera trahie par Lozan & Souysses.
Note on Translation: I cannot translate Lozan accurately, but the pronunciation does indicate the city of Lausanne.
The quatrain is descriptive enough. A leader is wounded by an arrow. At that time, Geneva is betrayed by the Swiss and the people of “Lozan.” Trouble is, I cannot figure it out what Lozon means. So, unless we return to bows and arrows in the future, I will have to leave this one to the reader to figure out.
Le jeune prince accuse faulsement,
Mettra en trouble le camp & le quarelles :
Meurtry le chef pour le soustenement,
Sceptre apaiser; puis guerir escroveles.
Note on Translation: Theophilus de Garenciéres translated escroveles as “Kings-evil.” I cannot figure out anything else.
I leave this to the reader to interpret.
Celuy qu’aura gouvert de la grand cappe,
Sera induict à quelque cas patrer :
Les douze rouges viendront soiller la nappe,
Soubz meurtre, meurtre se viendra perpetrer.
Line 1 is the key. Cappe is one of Nostradamus’ names for the house of Capet. Several times have there been governments under this house, at least after the time of Nostradamus. Under Louis XIII there was the government of Cardinal Richelieu. Under Louis XIV, during his minority, the government was of Cardinal Mazarin. There were a few governments under Louis XV and several under Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis Philippe. But it was under Louis XVI, one of the most inept kings of all times, that the fulfillment of this quatrain occurs.
The French Revolution was still is in its beginnings when the government was effectively transferred from Louis XVI to the National Constituent Assembly. It would become the National Convention then the Legislative Assembly but it held the true power. For a while the new legislature, which Louis was forced to accede to, tried to improve the situation in France. But with foreign pressure on it, with the king and queen opposed to the changes and with old Foreign Minister and General of the Army Charles François Dumouriez’s sudden defection to the hated Austrians, the new government was forced to act.
The Legislative Assembly created the Committee of Public Safety on April 6th, 1793. Originally a nine member organization run by Georges Jacques Danton, it became a twelve member organization on July 10th, 1793 with Maximilien Robespierre actively participating. After Robespierre became the head of the Committee, the King, the Queen, and many others whom Robespierre deemed traitors were executed at the Place de la Révolution.
Le camp plus grand de route mis en fuite,
Guaires plus oultre ne sera pourchasse :
Ost recampé, & legion reduicte,
Puis hors de Gaules du tout sera chassé.
Gaul refers to France and Northern Italy. This occurred during the closing days of the Second World War. The great army is the German army. After the Normandy landings the German army fought in a completely disorganized way – because of the combined air power of the British and American air forces, the Germans could fight no other way. Towards the end of 1944, with the German army hiding behind the Rhine river, pursuit ended while the armies of the United Nations paused to regroup. The German army regrouped first and in the west fought the Battle of the Bulge, resulting in a massive loss of German troops and equipment. Then, in 1945, offensives in the western front pushed past the Rhine, expelling the Germans from ancient Gaul in that area. Simultaneously, offensives in Italy pushed the Germans out of the Po River Valley, which was the Italian portion of ancient Gaul.
De plus grand perte nouvelle raportées,
Le raport fait le camp s’estonera :
Bandes unies encontre revoltées,
Double phalange grand abandonnera.
Note on Translation: The last two lines can be translated differently. Troops united (against, create) revolts and Double Phalanx great will be the abandonment.
In ancient Greece and Macedonia, a Phalanx was a group of armed foot soldiers, armed with long pikes or sarissa’s, numbering between 500 and 2000 men. In modern times, developing during the life of Nostradamus, a phalanx is used to define an entire army, though it can also refer to any group of standing armed forces, like a phalanx of infantry or a phalanx of police. This could place it anywhere, but the use of the term phalanx does indicate a Greek flavor to the quatrain.
The first two lines of the quatrain are self-explanatory. Some reports come in of a great loss, the reports astonish the army. The last two lines seem to depend on how it is translated and exactly what was meant by phalanx.
Looking to Greece first, there are several times when the Greek Army abandoned a great one. The army abandoned King Otto in 1843, King Constantine I in 1922, Premier Panagis Tsaldaris in 1932 and King Constantine II in 1973. Of these four, only the downfall of Constantine I seems to fit the quatrain.
After the First World War, the Greeks had been given part of the land of Ionia on Asia Minor and most of Eastern Thrace, lands that Greece had long wanted. However, under Mustafa Kemel, known later as Atatürk, the Turks attacked the Greeks throughout Ionia and Thrace. The fighting was fierce, but one sided, with the Turks winning not only against the Greeks but also against the British and French. The attack on Smyrna was particularly devastating, with the Turks burning the Greek and Armenian quarter of the city. Bitter over the losses, desiring to end the war and simply go home, the army revolted and Constantine was forced into exile.
I do not know if the Greek Army was astonished over the loss of the war, but it does seem likely that the army would have been astonished by the loss of Smyrna. In any case, the rest of the quatrain seems to describe this event quite satisfactorily.
La mort subite du premier personnaige
Aura changé & mis un autre regne :
Tost, tard venu à si haut & pas aage,
Que terre & mer faudra que lon le craigne.
This can apply only to Napoléon, who achieved the First Consulship at the age of 30. The great personage was Louis XIV who was great only because he was the king of France - it was his position, not his nature that made him great. Napoléon achieved the rulership of the nation by having himself proclaimed First Consul, his eventually being named emperor was merely a change of form instead of substance. He was an aggressive military genius, naturally he was necessarily feared. Even the British feared him, they showed how much they feared him when they gathered their forces to defend an attempted invasion across the English Channel – one that never came off.
D’ou pensera faire venir famine,
De la viendra le ressasiement :
L’oeil de la mer par auare canine
Pour de l’un l’autre donra huyle, froment.
Canine greed describes the German attempt to starve the British into surrender during the Second World War. It comes from the wolf packs that the german u-boats would form as they hunted and sank merchant ships. It is also a reference to Hitler's first name - Adolf means Noble Wolf.
It was definitely a scary situation according to the British leadership, for the British depended upon the sea for survival. The Germans, through their submarines, sought to starve the British into surrendering, but the British were able to keep the supplies coming in, bringing in “the fullness” instead of “the famine.” The one to the other refers the flow of goods from the United States to Great Britain. Nostradamus was quite correct when he used the plural "oils" instead of the singular "oil" for oils refers to the various types of oil the British needed, including cooking oil and the type that fueled its armies - petrolium. Wheat is, of course, the basic stable of human life.
La cité franche de liberté fait ferue,
Des profligés & resueurs faict asyle,
Le roy changé à eulx non si proterve :
De cent seront devens plus de mille.
Though Nostradamus was a monarchist, which was natural for his day, he was not blind to the faults of the king. Taken with the clue in line 1 it means a time when a king assumes power in France, taking away many of the principles of liberty the French had enjoyed up to that time.
Louis XVIII was crowned in 1814 with the bayonets of the allied forces backing him up. Under the influence of the Napoléonic elites, headed by Talleyrand, he granted the Charter of 1814. However, he tried to nullify the charter, reverse the results of the Revolution, restore the old autocratic way of the ancien regime and allowed the return of émigrés who hated the revolution. In doing all this, he made himself unpopular.
In 1815 the king had an awakening. Taking advantage of the king’s unpopularity, Napoléon dared to escape from the Isle of Elba and staged a comeback. Louis fled and Napoléon began his 100 days. It proved ultimately futile and Louis was again forcibly restored to the throne at the point of foreign bayonets.
Shaken to the core, Louis realized that in order to keep his throne he would have to accept the new reality, though he never embraced it like La Fayette did. Reluctantly, and in fulfillment of the third line, he mandated certain changes that he had to accede to in order to keep his throne. As a result, from Napoléon’s 100 days, Louis enjoyed a reign of well over a thousand days. In fact, his over nine years was well over three thousand days.
Changer à Beaune, Nuy, Chalons & Dijon,
Le duc voulant amander la Barrée
Marchant pres fleuve, poisson, bec de plongeon,
Verra la queue: porte sera serrée.
Many of the quatrains were meaningless until the modern events caused their fulfillment. For instance, all the quatrains concerning the wolf were ambiguous until Adolf (Noble Wolf) Hitler fulfilled them. I strongly suspect that this quatrain, dealing with a loon, is of a similar type.
Des plus letrés dessius le faits celestes
Seront par princes ignorants reprouvés :
Punis d’Edict, comme scelestes,
Et mis à mort la ou seront trouvés.
Nicolaus Copernicus was a contemporary of Nostradamus. If they did meet, Nostradamus would have most likely treated him for some ailment towards the end of his life and the two would have talked about Copernicus’ views of the celestial universe.
In any case, it is factual that in this, Nostradamus was quite correct. Multiple churches and many of the princes, rejected the Copernican system because it violated the Ptolemaic system. Even many Catholics rejected the Copernican view, even thought the church never officially rejected it. The number of victims who embraced copernicanism is quite large. As a single example, Giordano Bruno, a noted Copernican, was burned at the stake after he had claimed that the stars, being so far away, had to be suns in themselves, each with its own earth that required a messiah to die for the sins of the people there. (Though to be fair, he was executed more because he rejected the doctrines of the Virgin Mary, the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, doctrines the Catholic Church holds sacrosant.)
Even today, at the beginning of the 21st century, there are still those who reject the Copernican system because it seems to goes against what the Bible says.
Devant Rouan d’Insubres mis le siege,
Par terre & mer enfermés les passages :
D’Haynault, & Flandres, de Gind & ceulx de Liege,
Par dons lænees raviront les rivaiges.
While I am uncertain and my researches do not lead me any direction, this has almost certainly been fulfilled. Rouen is the traditional capital of the ancient province of Normandy. The cities of line 3 are all in modern day Belgium. It would have to have been fulfilled during the time that Spain controlled the Belgic lands; in those days Belgium would have been known as Spanish Flanders.
The most likely time was during the early years of the reign of Henri IV. His enemy was Charles de Loraine, the Duc de Mayenne, who headed the Catholic League. The league was aided and supported by Spanish troops lead by Alessandro Farnese, duca di Parma. Yet I do not know of any attempt by the Spanish to lay siege to Rouen.
Paix uberté long temps lieu louera:
Par tout son regne desert la fleur de lis :
Corps morts d’eau terre la lon aportera,
Sperants vain heur d’estre la enseuelis.
The key is in the second line. Only two times has France deserted the Fleur-de-lys of the House of Bourbon. And only during the second time was there no violence involved; Louis Philippe simply abandoned it for the Tri-Color. Therefore, it has to refer to his monarchy.
Line 1 is an obvious pun. Louis Philippe was known as the bourgeois king and the citizen king. He literally rented the throne from the bourgeois who were in control. However, his reign was not a good one. He became increasingly monarchial in his approach. Prosperity declined. Unemployment rose. In 1847, an economic crisis brought everything to a head, resulting in the Revolution of 1848 which deposed him and forced him into exile. As the fourth line indicates, he was never buried in France, like he wanted.
Le changement sera sort difficile,
Cité, province au change gain sera :
Coeur haut, prudent mis chassé luy habile,
Mer, terre, peuple son estat changera.
When the Americans and British invaded North Africa in 1942, an unexpected bit of luck fell their way, though at the time they did not realize it. François Darlan, the commander in chief of the French armed forces, just happened to be in Algiers due to the illness of his son who was hospitalized there. Talks were immediately opened up with Darlan, who initially opposed the invasion on grounds that it violated French integrity and moved to have all French troops fight against the landings. The American general at the scene, Mark Clark, moved to place Darlan under arrest. Passions were high and it looked as if the French were about to fight the Americans and British – French troops were actually shooting on the Allied troops in some places, calling them (with some justification) invaders. But Hitler sent troops to occupy mainland Vichy territory. Faced with this German invasion into the mainland of France, and having received a coded message from Petain, Darlan prudently reasoned that Petain, the president of Vichy France, was no longer in control of the situation there and that the armistice between Germany and France was over. Feeling free to act, he immediately ordered the French troops in North Africa to resist the invaders of the French Homeland (the Germans) and signed a temporary accord with the General Clark to support the liberation of France, an accord agreed to by Eisenhower and (reluctantly) supported by Roosevelt and Churchill.
It was the best possible scenario for the United Nations, even though the events were very difficult and everything almost went the other way. The French colonialists, having changed their state from servitude towards Germany to active opposition to the Reich, were now fighting for the liberation of their homeland. Within a few years, the downfall of the German Reich had all Frenchmen rejoicing.
Le grand copie qui sera dechassée,
Dans un moment sera besoing au Roy,
La foy promise de loing sera faulcée,
Nud se verra en pieux desarroy.
Louis Stanislas Xavier de France was the future Louis XVIII. This quatrain occurred during the time of the revolution, after Louis XVI had been executed. It was his actions and declarations that would lead to the saying that the Bourbons had learned nothing and remembered everything.
After Louis XVI was executed in 1793, Louis, then the Compt de Provence, declared himself King Regent for his nephew, styled Louis XVII. In 1795, when the uncrowned boy either died or was executed, Louis declared himself Louis XVIII of France. This he did in spite of the fact that his brother, Louis XVI, had written a paper accusing the future Louis XVIII of treason, of plotting his downfall and barring him from the throne of France. At the same time he issued a declaration, rejecting all of the changes made by the revolution. In doing so, he simply made himself a duplicate of Louis XV who also rejected the good of France. For the rest of the Napoléonic wars, he was an exiled wanna be monarch who traveled from country to country without any real court, until he finally settled down in England to await the end of the Napoléonic wars. He was “naked in essence.”
La legion dans la martine classe,
Calcine, Magnes soulphre, & poix bruslera :
Le long repos de l’asteurée place,
Port Selyn, Hercle feu les consumera.
Port Selyn is Crescent Port, a clear reference to the future Islamic advance through naval means. Hercules here refers most likely to the Pillars of Hercules, known today as the Strait of Gibraltar. The use of magnetics seems to indicate some form of new weapon, though it could be magnetic mines. Whatever it is, it spells doom for a fleet, most likely a European or American one.
Ouy sous terre saincte d’ame, voix fainte,
Humaine flamme pour divine voyr luire :
Fera des seulz de leur sang terre tainte,
Et les saints temples pour le impurs destruire.
Note on Original: The Bonhomme and Du Rosne editions had the first line as I wrote it. However, the Rigaud edition has dame instead of d’ame, rendering the line: Yes, underground the saintly lady, faint voice. This is a major change of meaning.
The Christian clergies have been persecuted several times since the late 1700’s. Nazi Germany saw a massive persecution of the clergy, but though Herr Hitler intended to eventually eradicate Christianity, he limited it to only those who spoke out against his racist and inhuman policies. The Communists also persecuted the Christian Churches, but their persecution was more in the line of attempts to make the religion subservient to the state and to starve the churches into non-existence. However, during the French Revolution, the religious life was actively banned, persecuted and forced underground, all in the name of reason. Many priests, monks and clerics, both Catholic and Huguenot, were executed by revolutionaries. The impure ones refer to the followers of the Cult of Reason and the Cult of the Supreme Being.
Corps sublimes sans fin à l’oeil visibles
Obnubiler viendront par ses raisons :
Corps, front comprins, sens, chief & invisibles,
Diminuant les sacrees oraisons.
Nostradamus is here commenting on aa current ongoing phenomena, the elevation of science to a religion. Any religion depends on beliefs that are not provable, beliefs that it depends on for its very existence. Most of them depend on the unprovable claim that some god or gods exist. Atheism, as a religion, also depends on several unprovable claims: That there is no god, that no god is necessary to explain anything around us, that we have no souls (and thereby rejecting the ancient definition of soul which is just another word for self), that we are nothing but our physical bodies. This quatrain is a lament by the very Christian Nostradamus as he sees the diminishment of the importance of prayer, the communion or communication with deity, in the minds of so many people.
Lou grand eyssame se leuera d’abelhos,
Que non sauran don te fiegen venguddos :
De nuech l’embosque, lou gach dessoubz las treilhos,
Cintad trahido per cinq lengos non nudos.
The symbol of Napoléon was a field of bees. This became his symbol quite by accident. When Napoléon became First Consul, he moved into the Tuileries. The drapes there had the fleur-de-lys, the symbol of the French Monarchy, embroidered on them. According to the story, Napoléon refused to have new drapes made. Problem was, he could not leave the drapes up as they were. So, he had the drapes turned upside down. The fleur-de-lys supposedly looked somewhat like a bee when upside down, creating the new symbol that remained with Napoléon to his dying day.
The last two lines refer to the coup of the Eighteenth of Brumaire. The five tongues not naked are the five directors of the Directorate. They literally handed over power to General Bonaparte. Some say they were bribed, others say they handed it over under compulsion; nowadays, who can say? The planning and the action began the night before. The sentinel could be no other than Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès, one of the chief leaders of the French Revolution and in the end one of the five directors of the Directorate; he was also the chief opponent of the Directorate and was the chief proponent of the establishment of the Consulate. After Napoléon pulled off the Coup, Sieyès introduced a new constitution which lasted only as long as it took Napoléon to rewrite it. Sieyès, a sentinel of the republic, was literally fooled (under the vines) by his own desires and his unwillingness to see the nature of the desires of Napoléon.
Salon, Mansol, Tarascon de SEX l’arc,
Ou est debout encor la piramide,
Viendront livrer le Prince Dannemarc,
Rachat honny au temple de Artemide.
SEX is one of Nostradamus’ important words. Dannemarc is the old Germanic for the Dane Mark, or Denmark as it is known in modern English. The place where the pyramid is still standing is Egypt, even though there are pyramids in a few other places, most notably the Mayan pyramids of southern Mexico/northern Central America. The temple of Artemis on the fourth line gives us food for thought. Is it an actual temple originally dedicated to Artemis, or is it a building dedicated to what Artemis cared for – the wild things? If the latter, then we could be talking about a building that houses a major naturalist organization.
Nostradamus emphasizes the word Mansol in Quatrain 29 of the 10th century, so this quatrain is likely tied to it. It is also likely tied to Quatrain 57 of the 5th century, which likely refers to the Montgolphier brothers and their balloon. So, it is highly likely that this quatrain is already fulfilled. Considering that Napoléon traveled to Egypt, he certainly could have fulfilled this.
Lors que Venus du sol sera couvert,
Soubs l’esplendeur fera forme occulte :
Mercure au feu les aura descouvert,
Par bruit bellique fera mis à l’insultre.
With the possible exception of Mercury in Fire (Mercury in Aries) the descriptions are Greco-Roman, not Astrological. The Sun often represented the monarchy of France. It also refers to things that are plainly exposed for all to see. Venus, the goddess of love, lust and pleasure, would naturally represent love, lust and pleasure. Mercury in the fire, while it does have an astrological interpretation, most likely means warlike messages. Taken this way, it says that when lusts and desires are covered by appearances, however splendid the lusts will be there, hidden from eyes. Warlike messages will be discovered and through belligerent voices an insult will be made.
I do not know what event Nostradamus had in mind when he wrote this quatrain, but it is a quatrain that could be applied to many situations if the lusts and desires are not so secret. Still, one must keep in mind that the lusts and desires must remain secret as much as possible for this quatrain to be fulfilled.
Le Sol caché eclipse par Mercury
Ne sera mis que pour la ceil second :
De Vulcan Hermes sera faict pasture :
Sol sera veu pur rutilant & blond.
If we are talking about the literal planets, then this quatrain would be totally ambiguous to me. It is true that Mercury does occasionally eclipse the sun, however when it does eclipse the sun, both astronomically and astrologically, it never hides the sun. That said, when one considers it through the meanings and areas of the ancient Greco-Roman gods, more meaning can be found. I am therefore translating this in exactly that way
The sun, Helios, the lord of light, is most often a reference to the monarchy. It can also be Christianity, especially Catholicism according to the very religious Nostradamus. As Nostradamus was a strong monarchist and a devout Christian, as well as an adherent to Catholicism, one has to apply the illuminating aspect of Helios to the monarchy and Christianity which Nostradamus always did. In this translation, Christianity is the only translation that makes sense.
Roman Mercury and Greek Hermes is the messenger god. He is also the god of travel and thieves. He takes what is said and makes it sound fair, but can stab you and take what you think is due you, leaving you with much less than what you deserve. He is the great communicator and the great scoundrel.
Vulcan was the forger, the god of crafts. It is Vulcan who takes the crafts and forges everything that we have. He is the lord of making things, whether it is the simple artisan making a chair, the factory making an automobile, or the construction company building the Empire State Building. His influence is purely material. He is the great craftsman. He is limited only to the material, what is makeable.
Taken this way, the meaning of the quatrain become more apparent. Christianity is eclipsed, or hidden, by messages opposed to it. Religion is given “its due” and placed second in the sky of importance, second to talk about material things (Vulcan Hermes). However, the message of crafts, of material goods, while great, will eventually diminish, and the creed of crafted materials, aka. materialism, will recede (put to pasture). Then, the sun, the real focus on religion and the spirit, will finally emerge again, sparkling and fair.
It is obviously a reference to now. In this day and age, the message of mass goods is the dominant message. Religion, Christianity, is given its due, but is relegated into a position of inferior importance to the message of consumerism. However, Nostradamus is here saying that inevitably the message of consumerism will diminish and be placed where it belongs, in pasture. Then, the true spirit of religion or the creed of the spirit, will shine forth.
Plus unze fois Luna Sol ne vouldra,
Tous augmentés & baissés de degré :
Et so bas mis que peu on lon coudra,
Qu’apres faim, peste, descouvert le secret.
The first line is a definite pun that Nostradamus must have secretly loved. It is quite correct. The sun stands for monarchy while the moon stands for the republic. The first line is also a play on words. The moon does not want the sun, the sun also does not want the moon. When one understands the first line, the rest of the quatrain becomes quite understandable.
After the downfall of Napoléon III, the powers that be in France wanted to re-establish a constitutional monarchy. But there was much contention between the two parties whether it should be the Bourbon heir Henri, Comte de Chambord or the Orleanist heir Philippe, Comte de Paris. Henri was selected with Philippe being Henri’s heir. But Henri refused, demanding that the flag of the Fleur-de-lys be restored. He adamantly refused to even concede the tricolor flag to republican thought. So the Third French Republic was established as a temporary measure till Henri died and the crown could be offered to Philippe. The sun did not want the moon.
Unfortunately, Henri lived a long time. Within ten years, pro-republican sentiments ruled in France. Now the people, embracing the principles of republicanism, rejected the monarchists. When Henri finally died, Philippe and his descendants were not allowed to assume the throne. The moon did not want the sun.
In the end, there were twelve presidents of the Third French Republic, each president was a refutation of the Monarchy so the French did reject the monarchy more than eleven times.
The other three lines are much easier to describe. The republic would move from crisis to crisis, surviving many problems until it finally, as a result of its lowest point in Munich, it was ended by Hitler in 1940.
La Lune au plain de nuit sut le haut mont,
Le nouveau sophe d’un seul cerveau la veu :
Par ses disciples entre immortal semond,
Yeux au midy, en seins mains, corps au feu.
Though this is likely something that will not happen in our material age, in a more spiritual age something like this could happen. The sophist is one who argues. Sometimes they are called sages.
Es lieux & temps chair au poiss donrra lieu,
La loy commune sera saicte au contraire :
Vieux tiendra fort puis oste du milieu,
Le Pánta choina philòn mis fort arriere.
Normally the first line refers to the time of Lent, the period where Catholics eat only Fish on Fridays (Spain and Spanish colonies excepted by papal decree). However, here it refers here to a place far from Catholic control: Wintertime in the Soviet Union.
In December of 1990 during the winter months (when fish on the table was increasing), some members of the Old Soviet Guard signed an accord by which the Soviet power (Communal Law) would be re-established, even in the face of the acts of Mikhail Gorbachev (whom they were opposing). The old ones acted on August 19th of the next year. Gorbachev was a prisoner in his own home; the conspirators tried to get Gorbachev to either resign or grant them emergency power, yet Gorbachev refused. By the 21st, it was all over. The coup had failed, Gorbachev was free and the conspirators were arrested, soon to be tried and executed. Communism (Everything in Common) was doomed.
Jupiter joinct plus Venus qu’a la Lune,
Apparoissant de plentitude blanche :
Venus cachée soubz la blancheur Neptune
De Mars frappée par la grandée branche.
The first line gives what seems to be an astrological (or astronomical) configuration: Jupiter conjoined to both Venus and the Moon but closer to the Moon than to Venus. But as an astrological aspect, it is ludicrous. The reason for this is astronomically Venus, being close to the sun, can never be on the side of the sky that is opposite the Sun, as the Moon can. Therefore, we are talking about non-astronomical meanings.
Nostradamus has given the moon the meaning of the republic, the people and the masses. It is the only meaning that fits the contect of this quatrain.
Venus rules love and passion, devotion and fickleness. The most gentle of the gods, the goddess is all sweetness and feminine softness. The goddess also represents our lusts and desires.
Neptune is the most mysterious of the gods. Lord of the Seas, duke of the tides, giver of the bounty that comes from the seas. Mystery is part of his realm. So is deception.
Mars is war, aggression, anger, fury and battle lust.
Jupiter is the chief of the gods. He is existence. Without existence, nothing can be.
Jupiter joined more to Venus than to the Moon is a statement about the people of a republic putting more reality to their lusts and desires than to the need of the whole population. It is a statement about the selfishness of the people. With this in mind, the quatrain becomes quite apparent. Nostradamus is talking about our own times. Lusts and instant gratification has become more important to us than the principles of the republics that we live in. The driving force behind this is Consumerism. The United States is where consumerism was born in the late 1930’s and given full life in the 1950’s. The European Union was created to improve trade and to build consumerism in Europe. It has presented itself, quite forcefully, in Russia, China, India and almost everywhere else in the world. It even has reared its head in the Middle East and the Islamic world.
Consumerism is the great lie we live under. Nostradamus recognized this when he pointed out that the lusts (Venus) would be hidden under our self-deceptions (Neptune). But inevitably, it will be only able to sustain itself by one means – war, represented by Mars in the fourth line.
Le grand mené captif d’estrange terre,
D’or enchainé au roy CHYREN offert,
Qui dans Ausonne Milan perdra la guerre,
Et tout son ost mis à feu & à fer.
Chyren is generally accepted to be an anagram for the future King Henri. The great one of the foreign land must be the Islamic Ruler. It sounds like there will be key battles towards the end of this future war in Ausonia and Milan, battles that the Muslims will lose.
Le feu estaint, les vierges trahiront
La plus grand part de la bende nouvelle :
Fouldre à fer, lance les feluz Roy garderont
Etrusque & Corse, de nuict gorge allumelle.
Etruria is the Po River Valley and the northern part of the Italian Peninsula. Corsica is the isle of that name. The part of the virgins probably refers to one of the temples of the Vestile Virgins that were situated throughout Italy – it was the one temple in ancient Rome where women had real power. The lightning in iron seems to indicate a future energy type weapon, probably placing this in the future. This is beyond my ability to understand. I will leave this to the ingenuity of the future reader.
Les jeux nouveaux en Gaule redressés,
Apres victoire de l’insubre Champaigne :
Monts d’Esperie, les grands liés trouslés,
De peur trembler la Romaigne & l’Espaigne.
Note on the Quatrain and the Interpretation. One word is of critical importance here. It is Champaigne, Champagne, on the second line. Later originals would have it written as campaigne, campaign. Even the edition Theophilus de Garenciéres used had the word campaigne. Trouble is, the originals never had the word campaigne, all have the word Champaigne and have capitalized the C. I have, of course, opted to follow the true originals.
The new games are the Modern Olympic Games. They were played in Paris in 1900 and 1924. But note that Nostradamus did not say France, but Gaul; this opens up the Netherlands, Belgium and northern Italy. The games were played in Antwerp 1920 and Amsterdam 1928. So the three games from 1920 - 1928, the Antwerp, Paris and Amsterdam games, all in ancient Gaul, are key here.
The victory in Insurbia and Champagne refers to the First World War, which was won in 1918. Insurbia refers to northern Italy, where the battle of Vittorio Venato brought about the destruction of the Austrian Empire. Champagne refers to France, where the Offensives in the Marne and the Ariems brought about the destruction of the German Empire. The three Olympic Games followed after this war.
The last two lines refers to the rise of Benito Mussolini in 1922 and the Spanish Authoritarian Period of General Miguel Primo de Riveria (1923-1931) which would result in the Spanish Republic after 1931. King Alfonso of Spain discredited himself by siding so openly and completely with Rivera; he could not continue to govern and was forced to abdicate on April 14th, 1931, resulting in the Second Spanish Republic. This would soon result in the Civil War and the leadership of Franco.
Gaulois par saults, monts viendra penetrer :
Occupera le grand lieu de l’Insubre :
Au plus profond son ost fera entrer,
Gennes, Monech pousseront classe rubre.
The French, in this case, refers to the forces of Napoléon Bonaparte. He, Napoléon, led his forces and occupied Milan, the capital of Lombardy, known also as Insubria. As is known, he sent his army into the depths of Spain and Russia. The red fleet refers to the British fleet, red because the British army was known as the redcoats. Genoa and Monaco were occupied by Napoléon and were at that time part of the French Empire, so here they refer to Napoléon and all of France as they tried to push against the British blockade with the Continental system.
Pendant que duc, roy, royne occupera,
Chef Bizant du captive en Samothrace :
Avant l’assault l’un l’autre mangera,
Rebours ferré suyara du sang la trasse.
Byzantium is the modern city of Istanbul, one time Constantinople. It usually refers to the Turks. Samothrace is an isle in the north Aegean Sea, now part of modern day Greece. The last line is totally nonsensical to me.
Les Rodiens demanderont secours,
Par le neglect de ses hoyrs delaissée :
L’empire Arabe reualera son cours,
Par Hesperies la cause redressée.
The Knights of Rhodes are the people of Rhodes. The heirs of the first knights were abandoned by Western Europe when they had to defend themselves against hundreds of thousands of the soldiers of Soilyman the Great. But the forces of Soilyman were checked when ten nations, the Holy League, were finally galvanized into action. While Don Juan of Spain lead the expedition and Spain funded it, Pope Pius V was the one who organized it.
Les forteresses des assieged serrés,
Par poudre à feu profondés en abysme :
Les proditeurs seront touts ffisz serrés,
Onc aux sacristes n’avint si piteux scisme.
The sacristy is a room in the church where the sacred garments, sacred objects, church furnishings and church records are stored. It is the room where the priests and sacred attendants prepare for mass and, after the mass is over, divest themselves of their sacred clothes. By default, it therefore refers to the Catholic Church.
There are two schisms in the Catholic Church that has occurred since the days of Nostradamus. The first is The Old Catholics. They broke from the rest of the Catholic Church over the issue of Papal Infallibility, which is normally accepted by the rest of the Catholic Church. This split occurred around 1870, around the time of the Franco-Prussian War. The second schism occurred as a result of Vatican II. These Catholics consider all popes after John XXIII to be anti-popes. Some even consider John to be an anti-pope. They have elected their own popes and have continued to practice their brand of rigid Catholicism. A third schism seems to be brewing during the reign of Benedict XVI & Francis.
I do not think we have arrived at the schism that Nostradamus wrote about.
Gymnique sexe captive par hostage,
Viendra de nuict custodes decevoyr :
La chef du camp deceu par son langaige :
Lairra à la gente, sera piteux à voyt.
Gymnique definitely refers to gymnastic athletes who compete. Most likely, this refers to a female, mainly because there is much greater audience interest in female gymnastics than male gymnastics. For this reason, I have used the term her instead of his. Still, it is possible it could be a male, however unlikely.
Geneve & Langres par ceux de Chatres & Dole,
Et par Grenoble captif au Montlimard :
Seysser, Losanne par fraudulente dole,
Les trahiront par or soyxante marc.
If this is not fulfilled, it will likely never be fulfilled. The reason for this is the last line. Most monies have been taken off the gold standard long ago. The mark was the German monetary standard, so Germany or germans are probably the ones doing the offending here.
Geneva is in Switzerland. The rest of the places listed are in France.
Seront oys au ceil les armes battre :
Celuy an mesme les divins ennemis :
Vondront loix sainctes injustement debate,
Par foudre & guerre bien croyans à mort mis.
The first line demands combat in the air, which did not occur until the First World War. The second demands a holy war which can only occur if there is a war of religion. While there are minor wars of religion, the feel of the quatrain demands a major one. The lightning used to kill people can only be a reference to weapons that are being developed, weapons like laser weapons that will be used soon.
This is a quatrain that is referring to the future war between the Middle East (Islam) and Europe (Christianity), likely with Israel (Judaism) as the catalyst. The Muslims will want to overthrow the Christian codes, replacing them with the Islamic code.
The last line is curious. It definitely refers to true believing Christians, both the Catholic and Protestant sects and likely including the Orthodox sect. Almost certainly it also refers to true believing Jews of both the Orthodox and Liberal sects.
What makes it curious is that it does not distinguish between true believers of any faith, therefore it could also include true believing Muslims of both the Sunite and Shiite sects. Today this is shown to be very probably by DAESH, the leadership follows the same pattern of most "Radical Muslims" that twist the Qur'an to suit their twisted purpose. In this they are much like radical Christians who also twist the Bible to suit their twisted purposes. In other words, the leadership of the Muslim forces mentioned in this quatrain would be a hypocrite who does not truly follow the Qur'an - he may pay lip service to it but he will use other documents to betray it.
Deux gros de Mende, de Roudés & Milhau,
Cahours, Limoges, Castres malo sepmano
De nuech l’intrado, de Bourdeaux uncailhau,
Par Perigort au roc de la campano.
I found all but Roudés in France, which leads me to suspect that it is under a different name in France. Bourdeaux and Périgord are ancient regions of France. The rock of the bell is probably a natural physical structure, though I have no clue where or what it is. I also have no idea who the two fat, or stocky, ones are.
Par conflict roy, regne abandonerra,
Le plus grand chef faillira au besoing :
Mors profligés peu en rechapera,
Tous destranches, un en sera tesmoing.
The royal conflict was the First World War. It was a war where king opposed king and emperor opposed emperor. The war would see the downfall of the Emperor of Austria, the Tzar of Bulgaria, the Kaiser of Germany and the Tzar of Russia, with the Sultan of the Turks to follow a few years later. The British, Greek and Italian kings would survive, for a time and Bulgaria would replace its Tzar with a king. But the quatrain focuses on the German monarch.
Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was inept in preventing the start of the war, abdicated because there was no other course left for him. He was succeeded by Friedrich Ebert who was the first President (greater chief) of what became known as the Weimer Republic. But the allied nations were not content with Wilhelm’s overthrow, they sought to pin the blame of the war squarely on Germany. Through the Versailles Treaty, they broke up the German Empire, broke up it’s military, and put a terrible financial burden onto the new Germany, a financial burden that would sap Germany’s financial health for a long time. President Ebert failed to protect Germany from this terrible retribution.
The one who brought witness to this was the one who would bring so much destruction to Europe. Adolph Hitler would use the Versailles Treaty as a rallying cry for many years, actually achieving power during the depths of the Great Depression which thanks to the Versailles Treaty hit Germany so very hard.
Bien dessendu le faict par excelence,
Garde toy Tours de ta proche ruine
Londres & Nantes par Reims fera defense
Ne passés outre au temps de la bruine.
The inclusion of Tours prevents this from being fulfilled in the First World War. Tours was too far from the action. However, it saw action during the Second World War.
Reims was actually fairly close to where the French and the British Expeditionary Force, following Gamlin’s Plan D took up defensive positions inside Belgium, just north of Reims. It was in response to the Germans attacking the three countries of the lowlands. It was a stout defensive position and was considered to be an excellent plan. Unfortunately, it was the worst place they could have gone to.
The Germans struck south of it, and using what even the French would admit was an excellent plan of attack, cut off the forces in Belgium. Within six weeks, France was occupied, and Britain was alone.
Le noir farouche quand aura essayé,
Sa main sanguine par feu, fer, arcs tendus :
Trestout le peuple sera tant essraié,
Voyr les plus grads par col & pieds pendus.
The key is the last line: Benito Mussolini’s body was hung by his feet on meat hooks. The rest of the quatrain falls into place.
Mussolini’s life was mainly one of vain bombast, bloody conflict and arrogant promises. But by the end of his life he had become quite timid, so much so that his friend, Adolf Hitler, complained about him. He was totally dependent upon the Germans for what power he had, which was little enough. The Italian people under his rule were frightened, not of what he would do, but of what the Germans would do. Finally, as the Allies closed in, he was captured by Italian partisans who executed him and hung him upside down, for all to see.
Planure Ausonne fertile, spacieuse,
Produira taons sitant de sauterelles :
Clarté solaire deviendra nubileuse,
Ronger le tout, grand peste venir d’elles.
Ausonne can only be Ausonia, a small town not far from the Mediterranean. This gives the quatrain a decidedly Italian flavor. According to the quatrain, it seems to become a major airplane manufacturing region – as noted by the gadflies and locusts.
I cannot figure this one out. It does not refer to Mussolini and the Second World War. Also, as far as I can tell, the major manufacturing area around Turin was the place where the major aircraft were produced. I do not know what was produced in the region near Ausonia.
Devant le peuple sang sera respandu,
Que du haut ceil ne viendra esloigner :
Mais d’un long temps ne sera entendu,
L’esprit d’un seul le viendra tesmoigner.
During the French Revolution people were executed in the Place de la Révolution. The guillotine was busy each and every day chopping heads off while large crowds applauded. The second line strongly indicates Louis XVI. The last two lines can only refer to Jesus, the unique one because he is the Son of Man. His testimony was pretty much trashed during the Revolution and was only realistically restored during the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy under Louis XVIII. Not even Napoléon, who reestablished the Catholic Church in France, really allowed the teachings of Jesus to interfere with his plans for conquest.
Libra verra regner les Hesperies,
De ciel & terre tenir la monarchie :
D’Asie forces nul ne verra peries,
Que sept ne tiennent par rang la hierarchie.
Officially the monarchy of heaven and earth refers to the papacy. Hesperia, as is recorded in the Aeneid, is Italy. But if this is true, the quatrain can only be nonsensical because the Papacy has never been the kingdom of the balance.
However, if Hesperia refers to the Americas, then it refers to the United States of America (which, incidently, has a large number of Italian immigrants). This is only possible because of the number of Italians who have emigrated to the United States. For a number of years, the United States was the dominant power of the western world. Its Asian opponent was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which stretched across the top half of Asia. And after the Second World War the United States assumed the mantle of the nation of balance from the British nation.
During its existence, the USSR had seven true leaders: Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Leonoid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko and Mikhail Gorbachev. Please keep in mind that in the Soviet Union, it was the Chairmanship that was the post of true power, not the Presidency or any other office, so other accepted leaders like Berya were only nominal, not true leaders. Of course, it must be pointed out that the quatrain does not say that the forces of Asia, the USSR, perish; modern Russia is still strong, still a great power.
If this does not refer to the struggle between the USA and USSR, then this is likely a quatrain to be resolved in the future.