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Le grand tappis plié ne monstrera,
Fors qu’à demy la pluspart de historie :
Chassé du regne loing apres apparoistra.
Qu’au faict bellique chascun le viendra croire.
I cannot find apparoistra, it is obviously not a word that exists as it was written, being instead a regular word modified to fit the demands of the rhétoriqueurs – the last word of the third line has to rhyme with the last word of the first line. Even with his intelligence, Nostradamus would have been hard pressed to make every quatrain fit the demands of this poetic style without modifying a few words to fit his ends. This has to be one of them. The closest I could think of was apparition, spelled the same in both English and French. I may be wrong, but it is what I used.
The quatrain is confusing to me, even without the confusing last word of the third line. I must leave this to the ingenuity of the reader to decipher.
Trop tard tous deux, les fleurs seront perdues,
Contre la loy serpent ne voudra faire :
Des liguers forces by gallotz confondues,
Savone, Albigne par monech grand martyre.
The two are the very pro-catholic duc Henri II de Guise and Charles of Loraine, duc de Mayenne. The flowers are the powers and titles of the monarchy. The snake is ambiguous, but is most likely the Charles, duc de Mayenne, the head of the Catholic League. The forces of the Catholic League, supported by the Spanish, fought on for a time, yet Henri di Navarre could not be defeated and Charles was, well, lethargic at best in his efforts. Eventually Charles gave up the fight surrendered to Henri IV, effectively ending the real fighting (though there was still some fighting to do for a time).
The last line refers to Spain’s intervention in the war. Savonna and Albenga belonged to Genoa, a member of the Holy League that was tied to Spain in its war against the Turks, but it must have sent some troops to assist Felipe when he went to the assistance of the Duke de Mayenne.
La dame seule au regne demouree,
L’unic estant premier au lict d’honneur :
Sept ans sera de douleur exploree,
Puis longue vie au regne par grand heur.
This is usually attributed to Catherine de Medici. According to the story, she remained in official mourning for seven years, then undertook a tour of her country. The basis for this is the second and third lines. The claim is that Catherine toured the country seven years after her husband died. It is definite that Theophilius de Garencieres thought this, the source of this is likely someone in France, maybe even Coligny. However, it is wrong. It is true that Henri II died in an honorable duel with his friend, the Count of Montgomery, yet Henri died in July of 1559 and Catherine undertook her tour of France in 1563 which was four, not seven years later. Also, with the religious wars occurring, it was unlikely Catherine had much chance to mourn the death of her husband. It could be said that she cried over the destruction of France and of her children but that lasted much longer. Edgar Leoni, in his impressively scholarly work on Nostradamus, claims that Catherine remained in mourning until August 1666, which would qualify as just over seven years, but the long life through great fortune could never apply – the Religious Wars were torturing France, she had been forced to participate in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre and she saw the last of the line of Valois ascend to the throne. Due to the fury of the religious wars, she enacted no successful reforms. Also, her 1563 tour of France was a triumphal tour, it is not recorded what she wore but she would not be wearing mourning garb. As Henri IV would later admit, about the only thing that can be said of Catherine is that she was extremely moderate, she could have killed thousands more but was always trying to find ways to reconcile the two sides. So, while her moderation could be said to be a great fortune to the country, she cannot be the fulfillment of this quatrain.
The true fulfillment of the quatrain is not found in France, but elsewhere. Of all the female monarchs of Europe I find that only Maria Theresa of Austria fits the quatrain. The unique one was her father, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, the penultimate Hapsburg sovereign, who died in 1740. Charles was the counter-claimant to the Spanish throne in the furious War of the Spanish Succession – the bed of honor, for he claimed the Spanish crown as a matter of Hapsburg honor, even though he eventually lost.
There are two ways of looking at the seven years of weeping. From her ascension to the throne in 1740 to the last battle of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1747 was a span of about seven years. Maria Theresa was crowned in June of 1741, the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed August of 1748 and saw Austria’s losing the lands of Silesia to Prussia. Either way, there are seven years of weeping due to the fury of the war.
Thereafter, she enjoyed a long fortunate life that benefitted the Austrian people. Recognizing that the causes of her people must be hers, she updated the government, the taxation problem, the military, the bureaucracy and the medical establishment. She also ended witch burning, ended the death penalty and though she had started off extremely harshly against the Jewish people, she ameliorated to a degree the condition of the Jews in her country. She also tried to reform education, though she had less luck there than in her other endeavors. By the time she died, the Austrian state was on a very solid footing, enabling it to survive into the twentieth century.
On ne tiendra pache aucune arresté,
Tous recevants iront par tromperie :
De paix & trefue, & terre & mer protesté,
Par Barcelone classe prins d'industrie.
I cannot figure this out. My first instinct is to look to the Spanish Civil War. But the Napoléonic Wars could equally fit this quatrain. The last line refers to the Spanish fleet in Barcelona. But whose industry is it a prisoner of. If the Napoléonic war, this would be British industry, if the Spanish Civil War, then it would be Spanish who made the fleet prisoners. On the whole, I tend to now side with the Napoléonic view. But it all depends on if there was a blockade of Barcelona.
Gris & office, demie ouverte guerre,
De nuict seront assaillis & pillies :
Le bureau prins passera par serre,
Son temple ouvert deux au plastre grillez.
Note on Translation: Nostradamus deliberately misspelled demi in this quatrain. There were reasons for this. He was literally calling attention to the war, which was not really a war but a struggle with murderous overtones. So it proved to be.
The Grey is the Reichswehr, the army of Germany, so called by Nostradamus because the members wore grey uniforms. Under the direct leadership of the aged President Paul von Hindenburg, a highly respected if increasingly senile Field Marshal, it was finding itself in opposition to the Agency, the SA, the paramilitary organization lead by Ernst Rohm. Both were independent of the Chancellorship, at the time controlled by Adolf Hitler. Rohm was nominally Hitler’s subordinate in the Nazi Party, yet he was increasingly acting independently of the principles of National Socialism as Hitler envisioned it. Rohm was trying to reassert the original principles of the German Workers Party, as founded by Anton Drexler, which was more socialist. The Reichswehr was angry with the SA for Rohm’s avowed intention to incorporate the army into the SA, with Rohm at the top. The feud came to a head. The Reischswehr threatened to depose Hitler. Hitler tried to talk to Rohm one last time. Rohm was adamant. Action was unavoidable.
The Night of the Long Knives, known in Germany as the Rohm Putsch, erupted. Rohm was personally arrested by Hitler, taken to a prison and executed. Multiple members of the SA were also executed. The power of the SA, the Agency, was reduced. It survived but was never the threat it was before the night (pass by tightly).
The SA was grilled on the plaster of Hitler’s ambition and destroyed when Rohm refused to cooperate. But so was the Reishswehr: as part of the agreement that saw Hitler destroy the power of the SA, the officers of the Reichswehr swore an oath to follow the orders of Adolph Hitler, not the orders of the German State. In making this oath, which German officers were honor bound to follow, they became servants not of the state but of Hitler personally. Thus Hitler gained what he wanted – total power.
Au fondement de la nouvelle secte,
Seront les os du grand Romain trouuez,
Sepulchre en marbre apparoistra couuerte,
Terre trembler en Auril, mal enfoüetz.
We will not be able to understand this until the tomb is actually discovered. Lines 2 and 3 are therefore the key to this quatrain. Because it is in the future, we cannot even know what the sect is; it it may not yet exist.
Au grand Empire parviendra tout un autre
Bonté distant plus de felicité :
Regi par un issu non loing du peaultre,
Corruer regnes grande infelicité.
The key is in the third line. To Nostradamus, there were two types of ruling people: Those who were born to rule (noble or aristocratic) and those who were not born to rule (base or common). The quatrain describes the ascension of one individual, born of base (non-noble or aristocratic) parentage who becomes the leader of an empire. This individual is far from anything good. Happiness is distant during his reign. And nations decay under his rule.
Only Adolf Hitler fulfills the quatrain. He was born of common parents. His father, Alois Hitler, was born Alois Schicklgruber, taking his mothers name as his father was unknown. Some people claim that Alois was part Jewish, if so, it would make Alois even baser in the eyes of the German people. Hitler grew up, emigrated to Germany and served in the German armed forces during the First World War. After the German Empire collapsed, Hitler vowed to do all he could to restore Germany to her initial prestige. He succeeded in eventually becoming the Chancellor of Germany under Hindenburg. Later, after Hindenburg died, Hitler assumed full power outright, becoming Fuhrer. He had all the powers of the absolute monarch.
He became all powerful in part because of the vast support many Germans gave him, the liberal financial support that major industrialists gave him, and because of the grasping nature of much of the German leadership, specifically Franz von Papen. In a sense, if fulfills the confusing first line quite adequately.
And as for the second and forth lines, life in Nazi Germany was a life of fear. Because of the pervasive influence of the Gestapo, the secret police dedicated to rooting out anyone who was even suspected of opposing the Fuhrer, goodness and happiness were distant. Finally, Hitler dissolved the nations of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland before launching his full war against France and the Soviet Union.
Lors que soldartz fureur seditieuse,
Contre leur chef feront de nuict fer luire :
Ennemy d’Albe foir par main furieuse,
Lors vexer Rome & principaux seduire.
This quatrain names Alba, so it can only refer to one of the Duques de Alba. While the quatrain came out in 1557, it is claimed by some that some of the nobility of France already had this quatrain on their lips in 1556, so it is possible that there were certain quatrains already known from the middle publication.
Fernando Alvarez de Toledo was the third Duque de Alba. He had attained his high dignity during the reign of Charles II of Spain. During this time, Charles had declared war on the Papacy, who had promptly excommunicated the Spanish Emperor. Undeterred, Charles sent Alba to conquer Italy and force the Papacy to renounce the excommunication, a common tactic during those days. It also fulfilled the second line – as the Papacy was officially the supreme government over all Catholics, Charles attack of the Papacy was an act of treason. Alba went into Italy and, even with active French opposition, succeeded in capturing the lands of Campagna. He was only stopped from attacking Rome by the French capture of Calais which effectively ended the war. Felipe II, the new king of Spain, sought to end the war after his wife, Mary of England, had died, in part due to the French capture of Calais.
Alba was considered by even his contemporaries as a particularly cruel conqueror. Felipe managed to restrain some of Alba’s tendencies during the Italian campaign, tendencies later fully unleashed on the Netherlanders. It is definite that his conquests in Italy resulted in the massacring of many civilians, including children. He was known as a very bloodthirsty individual. It was only his success on the battlefield that kept him in power. Military victory was seductive to the mind of Felipe II, the principle one.
La pitié grand sera sans loing tarder,
Ceux qui donnoient seront contrains de prendre,
Nudz affamez de froit, soif, soy bander,
Le monts passer commettant grand esclandre.
Almost certainly this refers to the disbanding of the Clergy in 1792. The parishes of France had long been citadels where parish priests at least did a lot of good, offering comfort and solace to weary people, protecting innocent people, and trying to do what was right. Many of these priests initially supported the French Revolution. But the Revolutionary leadership, out of a desire to punish the Church Leadership that abused its power, condemned the whole lot. Churches were closed on a wholesale basis; few were left to practice. Priests and monks who had before merely served were reduced to beggarly status. Many monks and priests gathered together and crossed the Alpine mountains. Their arrival in Italy, and eventual arrival in Rome, caused a scandal.
Au chef fu monde le grand Chyren sera,
Plus oultre apres ayme craint redoubté :
Son bruit & loz les cieux surpassera,
Et du seul tiltre victeur fort contenté.
That this refers to a Henri is beyond a doubt: Chyren is a known anagram for Henri. It is also an anagram for Chyron, the centaur who was teacher to Heracles and was the great healer. There are possibly two Henries who could fulfill this quatrain. The question is which one?
If we select Henri IV, then he was a world leader, at least a major leader of the Protestants. He was victorious in all his dealings, and he is even today considered to be one of the truly great monarchs of France. His ascension to the throne healed France after the horrors of the Religious wars.
It is true that after peace was achieved in France, he became a respected king, influencial throughout all of Europe. His influence was felt in his dealings with Spain, England, the Netherlands and with the Papacy. It is therefore possible, indeed probable, that this quatrain refers to Henri IV. But it is also possible that this quatrain refers to a supposedly upcoming King Henri, one who will be victorious over the Islamites.
I will leave it to the reader or the future to decide.