 |
|
|---|
|
|
|---|
Par pestilente inimicité Volsicque,
Dissimulee chassera le tyrant :
Au pont de sorgues se fera la traffique,
De mettre à mort luy & son adherant.
This quatrain indicates intense hatred between the Italians (Volsicque) and the French (Sorgues). More on this I cannot say with definite certainty. But there are two possibilities.
The first possibility deals with Benito Mussolini who was the leader and effectively the tyrant of Italy between 1922 & 1943. After a short time as a prisoner, he was the puppet dictator of Italy till all power collapsed in 1945. Soon after, he was killed in Mezzegra, Italy.
What stops me from declaring this as being fulfilled is that Mezeggra is a decent distance away from the French border. It is very near the Swiss border and shows that Mussolini was trying to get there for immunity.
The second possibility deals with Philippe Pétain and his prime assistant Pierre Laval. After the war ended in 1945, both were tried and condemned to death. Due to his service to France, most notably during the battle of Sedan in the First World War, De Gaulle commuted Pétain's sentence to life in prison. Laval was executed.
It is true that Italy was technically an enemy during the entire Vichy regime, an armistace, or cease fire, was signed, not a peace treaty. And it must be pointed out that Hitler and Lavel were master talkers. But the key is still the French bridge.
Les citoyens de Mesopotamie,
Yrés encontre amis de Tarraconne,
Jeux, ritz, banquetz, toute gent endormie,
Vicaire au rosne, prins cité, ceux d’Ausone.
Mesopotamia means land between the two rivers. It could here be the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. But it could also be in other places. The feel of the quatrain tends to place it as the land between the Rhone and Seine rivers, i.e. Paris. Tarraconne most likely stands for Tarracon, or Tarraconesis – it represents Spain. Ausonia is southern Italy. The games likely represents the Olympic Games, placing this in a modern setting. This can only be fulfilled in the future.
Le Royal sceptre sera contrainct de prendre,
Ce que ses predecesseurs avoient engaigé :
Puis que l’aneau on fera mal entendre,
Lors qu’on viendra le palays saccager.
The key is the correct translation of the third line. The rest of the quatrain is relatively easy to figure out.
L’ensevely sortira du tombeau,
Fera de chaines lier le fort du pont :
Empovsonné avec œufz de barbeau,
Grand de Lorraine par le Marquis du Pont.
I translated line 2 the way I did deliberately, because it is hard to say if the strength is a fort, the bridge itself or a force on the bridge. I have no idea of the rest of it.
Par guerre longue tout l’exercité expuise,
Que pour soldartz ne trouveront pecune :
Lieu d’or, d’argent, cuir on viendra cuser,
Gaulois ærain, signe croissant de Lune.
According to Lee McCann, the value of French money deteriorated between 1900 - 1940, with the worst devaluation immediately after the First World War. He asserts that in the 26th February 1937 edition of Extrait du Jour, in an article by Georges Lachapelle, he saw pictures where the moon on the French Franc was full in 1914, half in 1918, quarter by 1936 and a thin crescent by 1937. Admittedly I was unable to verify this, but as McCann listed his source, I am certain that people could go to the Bibliothique National and verify this for themselves. Consequently I am accepting it as factual. While McCann makes no statement about this beyond what he says about the coins, what is obviously assumed is what I am going to write.
The First World War was exhausting to all sides. Every great European nation, save one, went into it willingly – the French wanted to fight the Germans, the Germans wanted to tear apart the French and the Russians, the Austrians wanted to absorb the Serbians, the Italians wanted to fight, so long as it was not against Britain and the Russians wanted to defend Serbia. Only Britain among the great European nations tried to find peace, until Germany invaided Belgium. Everyone thought it would be a quick martial exercise. Instead it turned into four long grueling years of horrible warfare.
It is known that the war cost the French state a fortune. France also lost the most soldiers among the western Entente, over a million and a half soldiers lost, a huge number in those days. Also, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) produced by France fell between thirty to fourty percent, this before the Great Depression which saw an even greater drop in the GDP of France. That France would be unable to pay its soldiers is not something unheard of, the United States did the same thing later on during the Great Depression; it is a time honored trait of many nations to promise to pay their soldiers then to renig when the danger is past. The third line refers to the steady devaluation of money between the two wars. And the last line refers to the changes on the French coin itself.
Fustes & galees aurour de sept navires,
Sera livree une mortelle guerre :
Chef de Madric recura coup de vires,
Deux eschapees & cinq menees à terre.
If the Fustes (a flat bottomed boat in Nostradamus’s time) and galleys are to be taken literally, then this must refer to some incident that I know nothing about. If they are taken metaphorically, then it would be a later naval battle where a Spanish leader was injured. The key is the seven ships.
The only possible battle is the Battle of Trafalgar, where the Spanish leader, Admiral Gravina, was mortally wounded (he died a few days after the battle from his wounds). Nelson and the British had seven triple deck ships, around which sailed the rest of the fleet, including double deck ships of the line and frigates. The seven triple deck ships did most of the work during Trafalgar. Nelson, intent on a decisive victory, charged forward and, using a new tactic, delivered to the French and Spanish forces a very lethal combat. The British killed over 16,000 men while losing only 1587.
The last line refers to what happened after the battle. Two days after the battle, a force of five Spanish/French ships under the command of Spanish Captain Julian Cosamo left the port of Cadiz and sailed towards the British fleet in an attempt to rescue what ships they could. They succeeded in rescuing two captured ships, fulfilling the last line. They also forced the British to scuttle several other ships they had captured.
Au cainct de Vast la grand cavalerie,
Proche à Ferrage empeschee au bagaige :
Prompt à Turin feront tel volerie,
Que dans le fort raviront leur hostaige.
I could not find any Vast. The closest I found was Vasto in Italy. This does make sense as the other two cities mentioned, Turin and Ferrara, are both in Italy. However, Turin and Ferrara are in northern Italy, while Vasto is in Southern Italy, so I am not convinced. Still, the Italian flavor of the quatrain strongly indicates the probably that Vast does mean Vasto.
La capitaine conduira grande proye,
Sur la montaigne des ennemis plus proche :
Environné par feu fera tel voye,
Tous eschappez or trente mis en broche.
This sounds almost certainly like an event in the future. However, there is enough doubt that stops me from definitively saying it is the future – a common problem with many quatrains that probably are of the future.
Le grand duc d’Albe se viendra rebeller,
A ses grand peres sera le tradiment :
Le grand de Guise le viendra debeller,
Captif mené & dressé monument.
The Duke de Alba was the head general of the Spanish. When Felipe II went to war against the Papacy in 1556, the leader of the Spanish army in Italy was the Duke. To Nostradamus, who was an arch Catholic, this would be a rebellion against the Church itself, as it was, and it was opposite what past Spaniards did. In attacking the Catholic Church, Alba and his master Felipe did betray their great forebears.
In 1557, the French joined the war on the side of the papacy. Guise was sent to vanquish Alba but was unsuccessful in dislodging the Spanish – Alba realized that he had the advantage and pressed it. Key to the last line of the quatrain is the fact that Mary I, queen of England, was the wife of Felipe II of Spain. Consequently, England was also at war with France. The Duke de Guise, reeling from the Spanish capture of Saint Quentin and his own personal failure to dislodge the Duke de Alba from Italy looked around for a counter stroke. He found it. Marching quickly, he took English controlled Calais by storm. The shock of the downfall of Calais ended the war, conferring immortality upon the name of Guise among all Frenchmen. It also effectively countered Alba and the Spanish who, because of the fall of Calais, were suddenly impotent.
Le sac s'approche, feu, grand sang espandu
Pau, grand fleuves, aux Bouviers l'entreprinse,
De Genes, Nice, apres long temps attendu,
Foussan, Turin, à Savillon la prinse.
Cowboy is the modern translation of cow herder, or cowman. While Nostradamus would not know the word Cowboys (a modern U.S. word that has taken the world by storm thanks to Hollywood movies), he would know what they do. Savigliano is a small commune in the Piedmont region of Italy, specifically the Province of Cuneo.
I will admit, when I saw the reference to the cowboys, my thoughts turned to Hitler who was born in the sign of Taurus the bull. But then, who was the prisoner in Savigliano? This must refer to the future.
At this time, though I cannot research it like I want to, I am looking at some of the numerous wars before the unification of Italy.