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Le grand Chyren soy saisir d’Avignon,
De Romme lettres en miel plein d’amertume
Letre ambassade partir de Chanignon,
Carpentras pris par duc noir rouge plume.
Chyren is an interesting word that in this quatrain has two meanings. First, it represents Henri IV, the leader of the Bourbon faction during the Religious Wars who would be given the appellation Henri le Grand. Second, it represents Chiron, the centaur healer who taught Achilles in Greco-Roman mythology; Henri would heal the rifts in France, ending the Religious Wars.
Chanignon is a curious term, one I cannot decipher. The closest I can find is the town of Chavignon. But the rest of the quatrain is so obviously referring to Henri, that this ambiguous term can only, if properly understood, complete the quatrain.
Carpentras was a town near Avignon and, until Henri captured Avignon, was part of the Papal lands.
With these in mind, the quatrain is obvious. During the closing days of the Religious Wars, Avignon and Carpentras were seized by Henri IV. Pope Sixtus did not want to see a protestant on the throne of France, but had to admit that the odds now lay with Henri. His letters were polite and sweet, but very bitter. For his part, Henri saw the difficulty of ending the war favorably to himself while he remained a Protestant. He responded with letters that would lead to his conversion.
The only questions concern Chanignon and the black duke with the red feather. The duke could be a general of Henri or it could be the Duc de Mayenne who opposed Henri for as long as he could.
De Barsellonne, de Gennes & Venise,
De la Secille peste Monet unis,
Contre Barbare classe prendront la vise,
Barbar, poulse bien loing jusqu’à Thunis.
Monet is the only curious part, it can only refer to Monaco, otherwise the quatrain is nonsensical.
The first of the third line against the Barbarians (Turks, Ismaelites) sounds a lot like the battle of Lepanto. The cities mentioned in line 1 all sent ships to the assembly force. The leader was Don Juan of Austria, half brother of Felipe II of Spain. At Lepanto the forces of the west inflicted a smashing victory that ruined Turkish naval power. Though the fleet was rebuilt within a few years, it was poorly manned; the real strength of the Turkish fleet, the experienced sailors, were drowned almost to a man.
Two years after the battle, a Spanish force lead by Don Juan, successfully attacked Tunis.
Proche à defcendre l’armee Crucigere,
Sera guettee par les Ismaëlites
De tous cortez parus par nef Raviere,
Prompt assaillis de dix galeres eslites.
This one is more crabbed than normal, but it is quite obvious once you realize the last line does not refer to the Ismaelites doing the attacking. The crusading army is the army of the Knights of Rhodes. The Ishmaelites are the armies and navies of the Turkish leader, Selim III. The naval forces of Selim III attacked Malta, killing thousands of the knights and assaulting many of their fortresses. But in doing so, the Turkish fleet showed its impetuous side. The ten elite galleys were the ten countries that officially sent ships and troops to the battle of Lepanto, where the Turkish fleet was slaughtered.
Migres migre de Genesue tres tous,
Saturne d’or fer se changera,
Le contre RAYPOZ exterminera tous,
Avant l’a ruent le ciel signes fera.
The third line can be translated another way. RAYPOZ will exterminate all opposed to him. The shifting of Saturn from gold to iron indicates that what was once good is now suddenly harsh and enslaving – could it refer to Swiss neutrality? Definitely, Genoa is indicated, and maybe through Genoa all of Switzerland. The key is what RAYPOZ actually is; it is likely an anagram.
Ne sera seul jamais de demander,
Grand Mendosus obtiendra son empire :
Loing de la cour fera contremander,
Piedmond, Picard, Paris Tyrron lepire.
There are several keys to this quatrain. First is the word Mendosus, a Latin word meaning full of faults. The second is that Mendosus will obtain the empire, not the kingdom. He will not be a man to ask, instead he will simply take. Far from the court, he is opposed. Finally, the places: Piedmont and Tirano are in Italy while Picardy and Paris are in northern France.
This must refer to Napoléon Bonaparte, the first. He was full of faults, yet still obtained the empire; in fact, he created it. Far from the court refers to the various nations that kept opposing him and his reign, i.e. Austria, Prussia, Britain, the Papal States. According to the last line, the worst effects of his reign occurred in France and in Northern Italy; with the constant raising of armies there is a very good case that the people of France (which for a while under Napoléon included northern Italy) suffered the most for the emperor. Finally, true to line 1, he was never a good diplomat; the give and take of diplomacy, where people ask and sometimes receive, was never one of his strengths. Instead he was a soldier and took what he wanted at the point of a bayonet.
Vuydez, suyez, de Tholose les rouges
Du sacrifice faire expiation,
Le chef du mal dessouz l’umbre des courges
Mort estrangler carne omination.
While I am probably wrong, it is possible that the editor, Rigaud, made an error when he wrote Tholose. This is because if we replace Tholose (Toulouse) with Toulon, which sounds similar, the quatrain is already fulfilled. Keeping in mind that the Reds were revolutionaries while the Whites were royalists, the quatrain becomes simple to understand as having been fulfilled by the Siege of Toulon, which occurred between August and December of 1793. Of course, if Rigaud did not make an error and Nostradamus did write Tholose, then this quatrain remains, as far as I know, unfulfilled.
With British intervention, the Royalist forces had occupied the city of Toulon. A Republican force was sent under general Carteaux. Among the officers was a young officer of artillery, Lieutenant Bonaparte, who quickly envisioned how to take the forts of L’Eguillete and Balaguier on the important Hill of Cairo that overlooked the harbor. He did not get any acceptance of the plan under Carteaux, nor under Carteaux’s successor, Doppet, who was incompetent and admitted as much. However, the third commander, Dugommier, saw value in Bonaparte’s plan and organized the assault. It took days, but eventually they captured critical areas around the fort, allowing them to place cannon soas to perform a general attack the next day.
The attack did not occur. Instead, the next day, the British left the harbor. They feared enemy control of the fort and, fearing the result of vital control over the entrance to the harbor, fled. As many Royalists as could flee with the British ships did so. For the rest, it was a massacre.
Les soulz fignez d’indigne deliverance,
Et de la multe auront contre advis,
Change monarque mis en petille pence,
Serrez en caige se verront vis-à-vis.
There have been several unworthy deliverances, and monarchal changes that put the monarchy in peril. But I cannot connect any two together with what is said in the fourth line.
La grand cité d’occean maritime
Environnee de maretz en cristal :
Dans le solstice hyemal & la prime,
Sera tempree de vent espouvental.
The maritime ocean is most likely the Atlantic Ocean. The Mediterranean is not an ocean, but a sea, and the other three oceans do not have the commerce which the Atlantic has, though the Pacific is getting there.
The quatrain is talking about a city that is located right on the Ocean.
Gand & Bruceles marcheront contre Envers
Senat de Londres meteront à mort leur roy
Le sel & vin luy seront à l’envers,
Pour eux avoir le regne en desarroy.
Note: Gand is French for Ghent, Belgium. Envers means both reverse and towards.
The first line is curious to me, though it has only one interpretation which I will get to. But the rest of it is quite obvious. The Senate of line 2 is the Rump Parliament. The New Model Army had gotten angry when the Long Parliament was starting to negotiate with Charles. Colonel Thomas Pride lead his regiment to Parliament which forced their way in, arrested 45 members, forcibly removed another several hundred members, and allowed only 75 members to remain. These members were given, probably at the points of bayonets, the order to execute Charles.
The Salt and Wine refers to the low and high born who opposed him. These were the Parliamentarians, some noble, others intelligencia or bourgeois, others lower. For while most of the nobility sided with the king, many did not.
The last line refers to the result B The English Republic under the dictatorship of Cromwell. Cromwell tried to find a Parliament who would work with him. He never succeeded and was constantly dissolving his Parliaments because they did not want to do things his way. It was the worst tyranny the British would be subject to.
And the first line? Charles II originally resided in the Hague, which is located in Holland, then part of the United Provinces. After he tried to regain the throne, France and the United Provinces recognized Cromwell’s government. Charles was forced to live in the Spanish Netherlands (modern day Belgium) until the Restoration. He represented both the past (back) and the future (front) of Britain.
Mandosus tost viendra à son hault regne
Mettant arricre un peu de Norlaris :
Le rouge blajme, se malse à l’interregne,
Le jeune crainte & frayeur Barbaris.
This one is hard to interpret correctly, mainly because of several words in the quatrain that I cannot translate. Still, with Mendosus understood in Quatrain 45 to refer to Napoléon Bonaparte, I believe we can at least understand it, if only to a certain point. But I freely admit I could be wrong.
Mendosus, the one who has many faults, is Napoléon Bonaparte. He comes into his great reign when he crowns himself and his wife Josephine. Norlaris is an anagram, the meaning of which is unknown, I believe it refers to the Directory though I must admit I am not certain. Masle is usually interpreted as male, though I do have my doubts. And, in at least one quatrain, the British were called Barbaric. Here, it would refer to the Turks, whom Napoléon did not have all that good a relation with. Just what the interregnum is, I have no idea.
What is curious to me is that in this quatrain he spelled it Mandosus, not Mendosus. Therefore, it is possible that this quatrain refers to someone else, another great individual who is full of faults. However, I take it to be a typographical error on the part of Rigaud. In his La Premiere Face du Janus, Chavigny spelled it Mendosus.