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Mer par solaires seure ne passera,
Ceux de Venus diendront toute l’Affrique :
Leur regne plus sol, Saturne n’occupira,
Et changera la part Asiatique.
Those of Venus here most likely refers to Islam. Several indications from the Koran indicate this. First, a man is allowed to marry up to four wives and can have as many concubines as he can keep and pleasure (though he must do it fairly among all the women). Second, should a soldier die spreading the faith, seventy virgins are rewarded him, guaranteed by Allah. The solar ones would here have to refer to Christians. Saturn here denotes time and responsibility.
With this in mind, the first three lines of the quatrain are quite apparent:
The only remaining question concerns the fourth line.
Aupres du lac Leman sera conduite,
Par garse estrange cité voulant trahir :
Avant son meurtre à Auspourg la grand suitte,
Et ceux du Rhyn la viendront invahir.
Lake Leman is the ancient name for Lake Geneva. The strange woman are the foreign leaders who betrayed the principles the League supported. The last two lines refer to Nazi Germany, whose actions and invasions brought the League to a close.
Par grand fureur le Roy Romain Belgique
Vexer vouldra par phalange barbare :
Fureur grinsseant chassera gent Lybique
Depuis Pannons jusques Herecles la hare.
If it was not for the reference to the Libyan people, I would have sworn this referred to the Thirty Years War. But it has to be the Second World War. It must be noted that by 1942, Hitler was the true master of Europe and North Africa (except for Egypt). His control stretched from near Gibraltar to the Pannonias, modern day Hungary, including Belgium, Rome (through his proxy and friend, Mussolini) and into Libya. The Libyan people are the Italians who, in 1943, left the Axis alliance and switched sides, becoming allies, or at least co-belligerents on the side of the United Nations, in the struggle against Hitler. Italy officially controlled Libya. I can think of no better interpretation.
Saturne & Mars en Leo Espagne captive,
Par chef Lybique au conflict attrapé,
Proche de Malthe, Heredde prinse vive,
Et Romain scepter sera par coq frappé.
The Cock of line 4 is the military might of France. There were a few times when France took over the Papal States and Italy, though only as the empire, never as the republic. Saturn and Mars conjoin in Leo approximately every thirty years, with the next occurrence scheduled for July 19, 2036. According to Nostradamus, the Spanish leader, or Spain, will be captured by the person who rules Africa, or at least Northern Africa. The key is Heredde: This is either an unsolved anagram or a proper name of a person who has not yet appeared on the scene. The quatrain likely deals with the Islamic invasion of Spain after North Africa has been conquered.
En navigant captif prins grand pontife,
Grand apretz faillir le clericz tumultez :
Second esleu absent son bien debise,
Son favory bastard à mort tué.
The Catholic Church is often represented as a ship navigating through troubled waters. The papacy would therefore be the captain, pilot or navigator that guides the ship.
Several popes are known to have had bastard children, i.e. children born out of wedlock. Gregory XIII, one of the earlier popes after the prophecies came out, is known to have had a bastard child: Giacomo Boncompagni, who was legitimized by the future pope. Innocent X may have had children with his alleged mistress, Olimpia Maidalchini. There may have been others, but my sources do not indicate any.
Concerning the prisoner part, Pius VI and VII were both in their times prisoners of Napoléon. Also, from the time that Italy took over Rome in 1870 to the signing of the Lateran Treaties, establishing Vatican City, the papacy considered itself to be a prisoner – Popes Pius IX, Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV, and Pius XI all considered themselves to be prisoners in Rome.
I must leave this to the ingenuity o the reader.
A son hault pris plus la lerme sabee,
D’humaine chair par mort en cendre mettre,
A l’isle Pharos par croisars perturbee,
Alors qu’a Rodes paroistra dur espectre.
The second line is strongly indicative of the effects of a nuclear attack. The crusaders of old were soldiers of Europe who went to the holy land to fight the Muslims of the middle east and return Palestine to the Christians, so this represents the European soldiers in the future struggle. There are two Isles of Pharos. One, now Hvar, is an isle in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Slovakia. The other is where the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, stood – it is now a peninsula, not an isle. So, likely it is the one off Slovakia. Rhodes is, of course, in the Aegean Sea.
Du nuict passant le roy pres d’un Andronne,
Celuy de Cipres & principal guerre :
Le roy failli la main fuict long du Rosne,
Le conjurés l’iront à mort mettre.
Though Andronne could be a future town or the name of a street, it is likely that it was modified to rhyme with Rosne, Rhone. Beyond this, I have no idea.
De dueil mourra l’infelix profligé,
Celebrera son vitrix l’hecatombe :
Pristine loy franc edict redigé,
Le mur & Prince au septiesme jour tombe.
If it was not for the last line, I would have sworn this referred to Henri IV. The unhappy one who died would have to be the Cardinal de Bourbon, who was Henri’s captive as well as the pretender to the throne through the Catholic League. The victor is, of course, Henri IV. The law would have to be the Edict of Nantes. But the last line confuses me.
Le grand Royal d’or d’ærain augmentré,
Rompu la pache, par jeune ouverte guerre :
Peuple assigé par un chef lamenté,
De sang barbare sera couverte terre.
Under Charles X, France had invaded Algeria in 1830. The early conquest was performed in a short time. Yet the din of the conquest had just fallen silent when Charles was deposed in the 1830 revolution.
The much younger Louis Philippe assumed the throne as King of the French. He was initially reluctant to continue the war and promised to withdraw French troops from Algeria. Yet, the problems of withdrawal proved to be much greater than the problems of conquering the rest of Algeria. Within a few years, Louis had revoked his promise and the conquest was on.
Needless to say, the lamented chief is Louis who not only became a warmonger in Algeria, his absolutist tendencies slowly showed through. The ones who blead the most were the Algerians, who suffered the most deaths in the French assault. Nostradamus pointed this out by stating that the barbarian blood, called barbarian from the days of the Barbary Pirates, would be the blood that would cover the land.
De la Alpes grand armée passera,
Un peu devant naistra monstre vapin :
Prodigieux & fubit tournera,
Le grand Toscan à son lieu plus propiu.
The key here is the first line: The grand army can only mean the Grand Army of Napoléon. Tuscany itself is located on the northwestern portion of the Italian peninsula. In those days it was just northwest of the Papal States.
My researches indicate that during the Napoléonic Wars, the Grand Duke of Tuscany was Ferdinand III. Interestingly enough, during the war of the First Coalition, he was not attacked. Napoléon had crossed the Alps into Italy and was very successful against all the enemies of France. I know that Tuscany was not an ally of France, so I am lead to believe that Ferdinand was a neutral during the First Coalition.
However, by the Second Coalition, he seems to have been involved. Yet I cannot determine how much. I know that Napoléon took over Tuscany in order to create the Kingdom of Etruria for the Duke of Parma, yet gave Ferdinand the region of Salzburg, which carried with it an Electorate Seat of the Holy Roman Empire. Some years later, he took Salzburg away from Ferdinand yet gave him Würzburg, which was much closer to France than the other two places (and fulfilled the fourth line). Each of these changes were sudden. It was extraordinary (prodigious) that Napoléon would change him around yet not depose him as he did so many other rulers (as the third line stated). I can only think that he was friendly to Napoléon to some degree. If he was opposed to Napoléon during the wars, it is possible that someone on the allied side twisted his arms. It is certain that Napoléon seems to have treated him with respect throughout the career.
As for the monster, I can only think that it refers to Napoléon. Here, we are dealing not with Napoléon the Law Giver, but General Napoléon with his lust for power. He was not ruler of France during the First Coalition but the Directory had no choice but to accede to his treaties because he was the one who brought money into the Directory’s coffers. After the Second Coalition, he established himself as First Consel, the monster of this quatrain.