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Note: The first two quatrains of this decade were first seen in the Bonhomme edition of 1555.
The rest were first seen in the Du Rosne edition of 1557.
Un duc cupide son ennemy ensuivre,
Dans entrera empeschant sa phalange :
Haltez à pied si pres viendront poursuivre
Que la journee conflict pres de Gange.
The Ganges is the great river of northeastern India. One of the distributary arms of the Ganges is known as the Hooghly River. It is here that the quatrain is concerned.
The duke is Siraj Ud Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal – Nawab being the Indian equivalent of the European Duke. What he wanted to acquire was the British fort at Calcutta. He had already succeeded once but had lost it when Clive, a British Baron, had taken it back. He started to maneuver around. But his attitude towards his own people was such that they wanted to get rid of him. This was agreeable to Clive, who agreed to assist the conspirators.
By the Hooghly, not far from the main Ganges River, occurred the farcical battle of Plassey, or Palashi. The forces of Daulah outnumbered the British approximately sixteen to one. If Daulah had attacked it was almost certain he would have won. Instead, incredibly, both sides settled down to a cannonade for a few hours. Clive was certainly in agreement over this as it preserved his forces but it can only be considered stupid on the part of Daulah for it certainly prevented his own forces from charging and, likely, winning. Even more incredibly, after the cannonade, Daulah, concerned about revolts and being advised by his treacherous advisors, simply abandoned the field.
Clive had intended to not attack right then, but one column of the Indian regulars serving under the British attacked. The retreat by Daulah’s forces turned rapidly into a route. Daulah retreated, pursuing his own traitors while Clive pursued him. However, he lost even his battle against the traitors. He was caught, and executed in Patna, which is on the banks of the Ganges.
As to the French connection of this quatrain, it is a rebuke to France for failing to support its able leader that it had put there. It must be pointed out that Daulah had been put on his throne in part by the actions and the support of Dupleix, an able French governor in southern India. He was the one Frenchman who could have turned India into a French sphere, preventing it from becoming an English colony. If the French had supported him, it is likely he would have succeeded. As it was, the French abandoned him and he would die in poverty.
Some may say that Nostradamus was wrong to include this quatrain because it does not truly touch on France or one of its neighbors. Perhaps this is true. But I think we can understand him in this case. He was rebuking his own nation for failing to support one of their own.
En cité obsesse aux murs hommes & femmes,
Ennemis hors le chef prest à soy rendre :
Vent sera fort encontre le gensdarmes,
Chasses seront par chaux, poustiere & cendre.
This does seem to have a First World War feel to it, the fourth line strongly indicates poisonous gas. However, I cannot place it. It could be the future.
Note: Up to this point the quatrains of this century were first seen in the Bonhomme edition of 1555. The quatrains from this point onward were first seen in the Du Rosne edition of 1557.
Les fugitifs & bannis revoquez,
Peres & fils grand garnissant les hauts puits :
Le cruel pere & les siens suffoquez,
Lou fils plus pire submergé dans le puits.
The father and son are not people, but governments. This was fulfilled during the horrors of the French Revolution. The exiles and fugitives are the émigrés who fled France during the turmoil of the Revolution. The second line refers to the executions that occurred during the height of the Reign of Terror. The cruel father is the rule of the Committee of Public Safety, under Robespierre. Its cruelty suffocated much of the nation before it suffocated itself. The son, the Directory, did no better; it depended on war for its continued existence, drowning itself because it could not let go of war.
Du nom qui onques ne fut au Roy Gaulois,
Jamais ne sut un foundre si craintif :
Tremblant l’Italie, l’Espagne, & les Anglois,
De femme estrangiers grandement attentif.
The old kings of France were of one of two houses: the Carolingian house and the Capitan house (the latter having 3 branches, the direct Capetian branch, the Valois branch and Bourbon branch). Napoléon was the first to be of the house of Bonaparte. Also, his first name, Napoléon, was a name never held by a French king – there were Charles’s, Philippe’s, Jean’s, Frances’s, Henri’s, Louis’s, a Lothar, a Hugh, a Raoul and two Robert’s, but no Napoléon. No king of France, before or after, was so skilled in warfare. Italy reeled under his yoke. Spain sided with him partially out of fear. And when Villeneuve broke free and began his romantic journey across the Atlantic (with the purpose of eventually sailing back and creating a strong concentration of ships to break the British) even the British people, headed by the English, were scared least Napoléon land his troops on English shores.
The last line refers to Napoléon’s wives. The first was Josephine, a Creole born in Martinique. The second was Maria Theresa, an Austrian. Neither were born in France.
Quant la corneille fur tourde brique joincte,
Durant sept heutes ne fera que crier :
Mort presagee de sang statue taincte,
Turan meurtri, aux Ditux peuple prier.
The crow crying has long been an omen of bad luck. It is, of course, possible for a crow to sit on a tower for seven hours crying (or cawing as the case may be), but it is unlikely. Almost certainly it is metaphorical, but I cannot figure it out.
Apres victoire de rabieuse langue,
L’esprit tempté en tranquil & repos :
Victeur sanguin par conflict faict harangue,
Roustir la langue & la chair & les os.
The raving tongue is Adolf Hitler. In the Epistle to Henri, Nostradamus called Hitler “the rabid one who counterfeits the sage.” The conflict is the struggle between the German army and the SA, of which Hitler was the ultimate victor. The event that saw the end of the conflict is known as the Night of the Long Knives.
It is reputed, probably accurately, that Hitler took an active part in this bloody fight, personally apprehending his one time friend Ernst Roehm and ordering his execution. This would certainly make him bloody, as the third line indicates. The defeated, the SA, was marginalized by the SS, now on the ascent. The army, which had pushed hard for the ending of the SA, was satisfied and relaxed. Hitler was even more relaxed, he was the ultimate victor of the struggle, having achieved ultimate power in Germany. But in rest, his spirit was “tempered” with the desire for conquests. As for the speech: Hitler gave a fiery, if lame, excuse for the events of the night to the Reichstag.
Ignare envie au grand Roy supportee,
Tiendra propos dessendre les escriptz :
Sa femme non femme par un autre tentee,
Plus double deux ne fort ne criz.
I have to leave this one to the reader to figure out.
Soleil ardent dans le gosier coller,
De sang humain arrouser terre Etrusque :
Chef sielle eaue, mener son fils filer,
Captive dame conduict en terre Turque.
The Etruscan lands are in the Italian Boot, north of Rome. The first line indicates either a massive famine or a nuclear war, either way this has yet to be fulfilled.
Deux assiegés en ardente feureur,
De soif estancts pour deux plaines tasses :
Le fort limé, & un vieillart resueur,
Aux Genevois de Nira monstra trasse.
Nira is the key to this quatraion. I found a Nira Rock, but no place called Nira. However, move the N from the beginning to the end of the word, the word Iran is spelled. Consequently, the last line has to refer to the capital of Iran, Tehran.
This quatrain can only refer to the closing days of the Second World War. The two besieged were Germany and Italy, under violent assault. The second line refers to the burning thirst of Hitler and Mussolini, both extinguished by the fury of the war. The old dreamer was Marshal Petain, who did not seem to be altogether there from 1942 onward. The fort referred to Fortress Europe, pierced by the United Nations in 1944. The last line refers to the Tehran Conference in which Roosevelt and Churchill got the agreement of Chairman Stalin to transform the United Nations, the Anti-Axis military alliance, into the successor of the League of Nations in Geneva.
Le sept enfans en hostaige laissés,
Le tiers viendra son enfant trucider :
Deux par son filz seront d’estoc percés
Gennes, Florence lors viendra encunder.
The seven are the seven surviving children of Henri II and Catherine de Medici. One, Henri III, would be murdered by Jacques Clement, a member of the Third Estate. Yet before Henri (the child and son) was assassinated, he succeeded in assassinating Duc Henri de Guise and the Cardinal de Guise, both pretenders to the French throne. The last line can only refer to Marie de Medici, who would eventually marry the future Henri IV.