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Esleu sera Renad ne sonnant mot,
Faisant sainct public vivant pain d’orge,
Tyrannizer apres tant à un cop,
Mettant à pied des plus grans sus la gorge.
A man appears to live a very simple and virtuous, or saintly, life. For this, the people turn to him to lead them. But once he has achieved power, his nastiness becomes quite apparent.
Oliver Cromwell fits this description quite well. That he appeared to be saintly is quite apparent by his earlier life and his own testament. Though he was irreligious for most of his first thirty years, by 1631 he had been forced into a lower position in society than he was used to, and had consequently experienced a spiritual awakening. His attitudes and beliefs tied him with the “independent” branch of the Puritans, of which he was a very staunch believer. The older he got, the more his messages contained biblical imagery, imagery that he sincerely believed in.
Elected to both the Short and Long Parliaments from Cambridge, he participated in at least several bills, one of which tried to do away with the Episcopacy of England. As the English Civil War commenced and continued, he was given a command of cavalry, quickly rising through the ranks to eventually become the second in command of the New Model Army. The higher in rank Cromwell was, the more biblically laden was his letters. Finally, after the Second Civil War, Cromwell rejected both King and Parliament, deciding that the army, of which he was the virtual leader, was the true government of England.
Events moved swiftly. Part of his army did away with most of the Long Parliament, establishing the Rump Parliament. Cromwell wholeheartedly supported this maneuver and the goal of the army, which was the execution of the King. The Rump Parliament formed a commission of sixty people to condemn the king. Fifty nine of them signed for the execution of Charles I; Cromwell’s signature was third. Only Thomas Fairfax, the official head of the army, did not sign, he had stepped down from the commission and refused to have anything to do with it. In doing so, he passed effective control over to Cromwell.
Cromwell, now the effective head of the army (soon the official head as well) oversaw the execution of the King. Then he oversaw a butchery in “Papist” Ireland, and fought a war against Protestant Scotland (though he did not oversee any butchery there). He oversaw a tyranny in England that was the most odious that nation had ever endured. His feet, and his sword, were definitely on the neck of all the great of the Britannic and Irish isles, and while he personally let the poor go, his officials brutally enforced his proclamations and decisions.
Nostradamus calls him a fox. Cromwell certainly had the cunning and the luck of a fox, though it was unconscious; it served him well throughout his life. He certainly seemed to know when to fight and when to retreat. Also, consider the fact that a fox is normally considered to be a predator worthy only of being killed or gotten rid of; it is certain that the Irish believed Cromwell to be the worst of influences – they still bring down the “Curse of Cromwell” upon others. And almost all Englishmen ended up hating Cromwell before he was dead, fervently wishing for the King to return and “enjoy his own.”
Par avarice, par force & violence,
Viendra vexer les siens chiefz d’Orleans,
Pres saint Memire assault & resistance,
Mort dans sa tante diront qu’il dort leans.
While the quatrain has a definite French feel to it, I cannot place St. Memire. The closest I found, and I am uncertain about this, was St. Memmie, next to Châlons in the Champagne region of France. The last line, dead in the tent, could be literal or it could be metaphorical for having abandoned the cause. The first two lines seem to me to place it as Louis Philippe of the house of Orleans, but I am not certain.
Par le decide de deux choses bastars
Nepveu du sang occupera le regne
Dedans lectoyre seront les coups de dars
Nepveu par peur pleira l’enseigne.
Note on Translation: One word is not easy to translate. Lectoyre is traditionally translated as Lectoure, a city in southwestern France. However, it could be something else. I personally believe it is something else, though even if it is Lectoure, I find it does not change the interpretation of the quatrain. It could be one of those words Nostradamus used that had multiple meanings, all of them correct.
The nephew is Louis Napoléon, the nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte. The two bastard things were the Second Republic and Louis Philippe.
Louis Philippe, Louis Napoléon’s predecessor, had supported the wealthy bourgeoisie at the expense of the petit bourgeoisie. He was the first bastard thing because he was not the legitimate heir to the throne of France. Instead, he took the throne from the legitimate heir of Charles X, Henri, Duc de Bordeaux. His actions in the end, especially his decision to reject a peaceful means of protesting him, the “Campaign of Banquets” resulted in a massive revolt in Paris and many of the cities. Louis was forced to flee and the second bastard thing, the Second Republic, was formed.
The Second Republic was short lived. A strong conservative reaction swept the country and formed the “Party of Order,” which dominated. Louis Napoléon was elected President of France. However, a few years later, he swept aside the Republic and, by instituting universal suffrage, was able to establish the Second Empire. He had “succeeded to the reign” of the empire.
However, years later, Louis Napoléon lost at the Battle of Sedan. Napoléon, an inept general, ended up surrendering his forces. Paris promptly revolted and proclaimed the Third Republic, a move that was supported by almost all of France (including Lectoure). Napoléon, brought behind enemy lines, was docile compared to the more vigorous Bismarck. As the Prussians continued the Franco-Prussian war, Napoléon abdicated his throne and fled to England, where he died a few years later.
The only ambiguous part is the part about Lectoure, a commune in the southwest of France. However, as Edgar Leoni points out, an English Nostradamus translator by the name of Ward offered a possible answer. According to Ward, lectoyre, the French original, is an anagram of Le Torcey, a commune located directly across the river from Sedan.
Le procreé naturel d’ogmion,
De sept à neuf du chemin destorner
A roy de longue & amy aumi hom,
Doit à Navarre fort de PAU prosterner.
The Ogmion of line 1 places this quatrain in the future. As Ogmios represents the gaelic God of communication, it is a clear reference to a Gael, likely a Frenchman, who is a master communicator. As that has not yet happened yet, this must be the future.
One word we cannot know is PAU. Normally, I would say it was the city of Pau the city in France (though there is also a Pau in Spain and Sardinia). But the fact that Nostradamus capitalized all three letters tells me that this is not Pau. But what it really means will remain unknown till it is fulfilled.
Just what the natural offspring of the Ogmion is, I have no idea. I could be a child of our future Ogmion. But it could also be a leader, a future leader who succeeds to the position our future Ogmion vacates.
La main escharpe & la jambe bandee,
Longs puis nay de Calais potrera
Au mot duguer la mort sera tardee,
Puis dansle temple à Pasques saignera.
Henri, duc de Guise was injured on the cheek in the Battle of Dormans and, like his father, was known as La Balafré – The Injured. He was the one from Calais because it was his father, Francis de Guise, who took Calais from the English. He was known for his opposition to Henri III, king of France and actively sought the French crown. After duc Henri gained control of the Estates General, King Henri decided he had to get rid of the duc. Henri de Guise was summoned to Blois where his metaphrical leg was bandaged (he could not run) and as a guest of the King he could not bring any weapons, injuring his metaphorical hand (he could not fight). True to line 3, a warning was delivered to the duc, warning him of his life and giving him a chance to escape and avert his fate. But it was a warning he haughtily ignored - according to legend Henri is reputed to have said "He would not dare." The next day he was summoned to the chapel and killed without anyone aiding him. Pasques is a family name and one of the guards may have had that name.
Pol mensolee mourra trois lieuës du rosne,
Fuis les deux prochains tarasc destrois :
Car Mars sera le plus horrible trosne,
De coq & d’aigle de France freres trois.
Pol mensolee could be an attempt by Nostradamus to phonetically pronounce a name that he cannot spell, but it is one I cannot figure out. The only thing on the first line I can determine is that this Paul Mensolee died about 3 hours travel time (either by foot or by horseback) from the Rhone. The last line is interesting and without any doubt lets us understand the quatrain. The way the line is written demands the three French brothers in the Epistle to Henri. They were the Committee of Public Safety, the Directory, and the dictatorship of Napoléon Bonaparte. If there is any doubt, the mention of the Eagle of France removes it – it only appeared during the Empire of Napoléon. The Tarasc was a legendary monster that devoured everything around it. The Revolutionary/Napoléonic Wars certainly provided the theater for France to fulfill the description, they devoured all of Europe for years. The two who flee the destructiveness of the Tarasc (of the Revolution) are the survivors of the House of Bourbon and the House of Orleans, the two who are most specific (the last of the houses to flee) were Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France of Bourbon, and Louis Philippe d’Orléans.
Lac Trasmenien pottera tesmoignage,
De conjurez sarez dedans Perouse,
Un despolle contrefera le sage,
Tuant Tedesq de sterne & minuse.
The only thing I can say is that Lake Trasimeno is near Perouse, also known as Perugia. The last two lines are harder to place. Despolle, Tedseq and minuse are words I cannot accurately translate. I must go with Anatole Le Pelletier, a translater from 1867, gave the only realistic translation of despolle, he translated it as despollé, fool. That makes the third line sound very much like Heir Hitler, who was marked in the Epistle to Henri as the rabid one who counterfeits the sage, since Hitler was in some ways a fool this interpretation certainly fits. But the closest I could get with minuse is without, and Tedesq I cannot even begin to guess. I must leave this to the reader to figure out.
Saturne en Cancer, Jupiter avec Mars,
Dedans Feurier Chaldondon salvaterre.
Sault Castallon affailli de trois pars,
Pres de Verbiesque conflit mortelle guerre.
From what I could tell, Castallon is a small city just outside Valencia, Spain. Where Vertiesque is, I think nobody knows. But from the location of Castallon, I would suspect that this quatrain occurs in Spain.
Concerning Chaldondon, Lee McCann claims that Nostradamus used a triple anagram. His interpretation of this word is: 1) Wise as a Chaldean seer, 2) Under the aegis of a vigorous young nation, and 3) with the fullest round measure. While I have my doubt as to the full accuracy of this, I give it to the reader to decide. My own expectation is that it refers to a person, Nostradamus did leave a few actual names in the quatrains, though it could be an anagram instead of an actual name.
Concerning the astrological configuration of line 1 (Saturn in Cancer, Jupiter conjoined with Mars) it last occurred in the end of February 1799, and was the first occurrence of this configuration since 1504, the year after Nostradamus was born. It is not due to occur again until the end of February in 2123. But that is assuming it is timed by Saturn in Cancer and Jupiter with Mars. If one considers the first line to be a birth chart, then the first two lines, Chaldondon, whose birth chart had Saturn in Cancer and Jupiter conjoined with Mars will save the land in February.
That is one of the problems with Nostradamus. Until it is figured out, one cannot determine if an astrological indicator represents an event chart or a birth chart.
Saturn au beuf, jove en l’eau, Mars en fleiche,
Six de feurier mortalité donra,
Ceur de Tardaigne à Bruge si grand breache,
Qu’à Ponteroso chef Barbarin mourra.
The first line is likely an astrological configuration. The beef is Taurus the Bull, the arrow can only refer to Sagittarius, the Archer. The water however can be interesting. Normally it means Aquarius the Water bearer, but it could be one of the three Water signs, Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces. We therefore have an astrological configuration: Saturn in Taurus, Mars in Sagittarius, Jupiter in Aquarius or one of the three water signs, on the Sixth of February.
This happened in February 6, 1736 with Jupiter in Aquarius. It also happened in 1499 (before Nostradamus was born) with Jupiter in Aquarius. It will occur again in 2176 with Jupiter in the water sign Cancer. So, unless someone has information concerning the year 1736, most likely this is reserved for the future, maybe the very distant future.
There is the possibility that the first line is not a single astrological configuration but several configurations. It could refer to a birth chart and an event placement, i.e. the event occurring when Mars is in Sagitarius to a person born with Saturn in Taurus and Jupiter in Aquarius. Things like this make interpreting the quatrains difficult, at the least.
There is no place called Ponteroso, though I found a town called Ponte Rosso located in Italy. However, I cannot find Tardaigne or anything close to it. Bruges alone is obvious; it is in the Flanders section of Belgium.
La pestilence l’entour de Capadille,
Un autre faim pres de Sagont s’appreste :
Le chevalier bastard de bon senile,
Au grand de Thunes fera tranchet la teste.
Almost certainly this has been fulfilled. “Le chevalier” of line three, the traditional knight of line 3, does not exist any more. That said, there are knights in England and Scotland to this day, not traditional knights but individuals given an honorific knighthood. I do not know if France or any other European country also has the same tradition, but it would not surprise me. If this is what it refers to, then this has to be the future. Two of the place names, Capadille & Sagont, are in Spain.
The only clue I have is from the writings of Edgar Leoni. In his “Nostradamus and his Prophecies,” he claims that this was fulfilled by Don Juan of Austria. Don Juan was a bastard child of Charles V, the “good old man” as Leoni claims, and was accepted by his half brother Felipe II. Don Juan never betrayed his half brother. He lead the forces at Lepanto and served Felipe in other capacity.
Leoni claims that this refers to a Spanish attack on Tunis in 1573. Don Juan lead the assault. Supposedly the Don cut off the head of the Algerian ruler who was installed by the Sultan. And while Leoni had no information about the famine, it is claimed that there was pestilence in Capadille and Sagont in 1570 & 74.
I present this because it is likely Leoni is correct and I have no better analysis.