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Le juste à tort à mort long viendra mettre
Publiquement, & du milieu estaint :
Si grande peste en lieu viendra naistre,
Que les jugeans fouyt serot constraint.
The righteous man was Louis XVI, so called because according to Nostradamus’ mind, no king of France was ever wrong. Ever since his recapture in Varennes, he was a dead man walking. Nobody trusted him and his his crown was eventually disposed of. But it took a while to finally get up the nerve to actually execute him. The Brunswick Manifesto, a manifesto created by the Austrian and Prussian kings in support of Louis, proved to be the final push needed to get the Legislative Assembly to vote for the death of the King. This they finally did and, in the place de la revolution on the 21st of January, 1793, Citoyen (Citizen) Louis Capet was executed.
This was but the beginning of the Reign of Terror, the pestilence of line 3. The Jacobins quickly gained control of France through the National Assembly. Anyone who opposed their will was executed. Many who disagreed with them were executed. The Girondists were driven underground and out of public life. Almost nobody was safe: even judges fled.
Le tant d’argent de Diane & Mercure
Les simulachres au lac seront trouvez,
Le figulier cherchant argille neufue
Luy & les siens d’or feront abbrevez.
Theophilus de Garenciéres translated figulier as potter, which in French is potier. This did not seem to work. However, using sculptor (sculpteur), a trade similar to a potter also does not work. I therefore settled for figuier, fig tree, which was the closest I could find to the original figulier. But this renders the quatrain completely confusing.
I must leave this to the reader to figure out.
Les exilez autour de la Soulongne
Conduis de nuit pour marcher à Lauxois,
Deux de Modene truculent de Bologne,
Mys descouvers par feu de Burançoys.
Soulongne is obviously modified to rhyme with Bologne on line 3. The closest to Soulongne I found was Sologny, a tiny commune north of Lyon. Laxois also does not seem to exist, the closest I found was Auxois, a very tiny commune in France. However, it does not fit the Italian feel of the third line. Modena and Bologna are both in Italy. Burancois has no match anywhere I could find, though it is likely modified to rhyme with Lauxois on line 2.
Mys en planure chalderons d’infecteurs,
Vin, miel & huyle, & bastis sut forneaulx
Seront plongez sans mal dir malfacteurs
Sept fum extaint au canon des borneaux.
This is one of Nostradamus’ more interesting and difficult quatrains. About the only thing I am certain of is that Borneaux is obviously Bordeaux, redone to rhyme with forneaulx. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine.
Pres de Parpan les rouges detenus
Ceux du milieu parfondrez menez loing:
Trois mis en pieces, & cinq mal soustenus,
Pour le Seigneur & Prelat de Bourgoing.
Burgoing is obviously a word altered to rhyme with loing on line 2. I am therefore willing to alter it somewhat to find an original. The closest I can find is Burgundy, one of the ancient provinces of France. Another possibility is Bordeaux.
De castel Franco fortira l’assemblee,
L’ambassadeur non plaisant fera scisme:
Ceux de Ribiere seront en la meslee,
Et au grand goulphre desnier ont l’entree.
This is one of the quatrains that Nostradamus did not make so ambiguous. He left in one name completely correct and made the other name only slightly incorrect, because the other name has two meanings! The quatrain is completely accurate.
Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde, known simply as Francisco Franco, or Franco, was the leader of the main opposition in the Spanish Revolution. He was the head originally of the Spanish forces in Africa, but soon became an unattached commander on the way to overall military command. He literally took over the military assembly. He also took out the Republican Assembly, the Cortes General, which had become a puppet of the Communists.
The ambassadors were the German and Italian, who sided with Franco, and the Soviet, who sided with the communist leaning government in power. All three nations sent troops who supported their respective sides.
Ribiere has two meanings, both of which are true. The first is La Ribiera, which is located in France; here it stands for all of France. The French definitely sided with the republican government, not knowing it was planning to impose a communist style government on Spain. But France itself did not officially participate, instead, French joined international brigades, sending over nine thousand, the largest contingent of people who sided with the Republicans, and supplied the Republican government with arms and armaments for the duration of the war. The second interpretation of Ribiere is that it is a Frenchification of the name Rivera, here it refers to José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the original leader of the Falange movement. Executed in 1936, he was against the liberal government from the beginning. When Franco took over the Falange movement, he would lift Rivera up as a martyr to Spain. One word, two meanings, both accurate.
The last line can only refer to the Gulf of Valencia. Franco enforced a very successful blockaid in the gulf which denied all trade with the Republican government, denying anyone entry into Spain through the Gulf. This denied the Republic any and all supplies they could have obtained from foreign aid or trade.
Le tiers premier pys que ne feit Neron,
Vuidex vaillant que sang humain respandre:
R’edifier fera le forneron,
Siecle d’or, mort, nouveau roy grand esclandre.
The third premier is actually the Leader of the Third Reich. Hitler was originally just the Chancellor of Germany, the equivalent of a Premier or Prime Minister. It was after Hindenburg died that he became the Fuhrer and Reich’s Chancellor.
His being compared to Nero is quite accurate. But note that it is not what Nero actually did, but Nero’s reputation that Hitler is being compared to. Nero himself was not as bad as history has portrayed him to be – he did not fiddle while Rome burned but actually went out and tried to save lives and stop the fire. But he did stand aside while the first official persecution of Christians, known in those days as “That Jewish Sect,” started, it is probable that he did have Christians burned on stakes to keep his palace lit. Hitler caused the slaughter of even more Jews than Nero reputedly killed Christians. And in the war that Hitler launched, the number of dead reached the staggering sum of forty million. The furnaces are the furnaces of Germany’s war industry, not the concentration camp furnaces (which had not existed until Hitler had them built). The age of gold, the guilded 1920's, was over. Finally, Hitler was renown for his violent outbursts.
Le lys Dauffois portera dans Nansy
Insques en Flandres electeur de l’empire :
Neufue obturee au grand Montmorency,
Hors lieux prouez delivre à clere penye.
The key is the third and fourth lines. This can only refer to Henri II de Montmorency. He was the son of Henri I de Montmorency and grandson of Anne de Montmorency, both who held the office Constable of France. Henri had every reason to believe he would eventually be elected to fill that high post. But his hopes were dashed in 1626 when Richelieu destroyed the castles of France and ordered the position of Constable of France abolished. This angered Henri yethe swallowed his pride. But in 1627, when Richelieu laid siege to La Rochelle, he refused Henri the leadership of the army besieging the city. This gained Henri Montmorency’s hatred of the minister. He was therefore instrumental in a revolt against the Cardinal, which occurred in 1632. Unfortunately for him, he was captured, imprisoned in a building that was new for its time and eventually executed, beheaded with a sword in the Hôtel de Ville de Toulouse on 30 October 1632, as was the standard custom of France.
The next year, Louis XIII won the campaign into Nancy. Two years later, he marched to the aid of the German Elector of Treves. Louis was the son of Henri IV and, as such, was the Dauphin in his earlier years. He was also the first Dauphin to hold as his coat of arms the fleur-de-lys, the white lily of the Bourbons.
Dans le millieu de la forest Mayenne,
Sol au Lyon la fouldre tombera,
Le grand bastard yssu du gran du Maine,
Ce jour fougeres pointe en sang entrera.
Mayenne is a town in the Mayenne department. Even today, there are forests west and south of the town. The ancient province of Maine included the city of Mayenne, which was located on its western side. The timing of the quatrain is given only to the time of the year. The Sun in the Lion refers to the Sun in the astrological sign of Leo, which occurs every year approximately July 21st to August 21st. But whether this refers to the timing of the event or the birth chart, the one who causes the events, is unknown.
De nuict viendra par la forest de Reines,
Deux pars vaultorre Herne la pierre blanche,
Le moine noir en gris dedans Varennes
Esleu cap. Cause tempeste feu, sang tranche.
Note on Translation: Reines can be Queens, it can also be Reims. In a sense, both are accurate: Varennes, where the Queen was taken, was in a wooded area not far west of Reims. Herne is ambiguous, though many consider it to be an anagram for Reine, Queen. Taken in this context, it makes sense when one applies it to the Flight to Varennes.
The quatrain deals with the flight of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to the border. True to line 4, Louis was a constitutional monarch (Elected Capet) at the time. The escape from the Tuileries was well executed. Unfortunately, the route they choose displayed a lack of understanding. In Varennes-en-Argonne, Louis, disguised as a Benedictine monk (grey robes) was recognized by the postmaster, Drouet. His return sealed the fate of the monarchy, leading to further wars, the downfall of the Girondists who had supported him, and the eventual execution of him and his wife by the Jacobins.