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Note: The last two centuries are found only in the Sève edition. There are those who doubt the legitimacy of these quatrains. I, however, have no doubt whatsoever. The reason for this is based on the writings of Nostradamus’ friend, Jean Ayme Chavigny.
In his second work Commentaries, the sixth quatrain he comments on (and the fifth from the centuries) is the very first quatrain of the eleventh century, Quatrain 91. He treated it like any of the other quatrains he treated in his book.
Chavigny knew the mind of Nostradamus better than almost anyone else. If the quatrain was a fake, why would Chavigny included it in his Commentaries and treat it like a legitimate quatrain? Chavigny obviously considered it to be a legitimate quatrain; he, more than anyone, would know. This is sufficient proof to me to declare the one quatrain completely authentic and, by necessary implication, to treat the rest of the truncated last two centuries authentic.
Note: The two quatrains of the eleventh century and the eleven quatrains of the twelfth century were first seen in their official listings in the Sève edition of 1605, though Chavigny included at least some in his works. In fact, it may be that Sève obtained all of these from Chavigny.
Meysnier, Manthi, & le tiers qui viendra
Peste & nouveau insult, enclos troubler :
Aix & les lieux fureur dedans mordra,
Pius les Phocens viendront leur mal doubler.
Though they could be anagrams, Meysnier and Manthi are almost certainly names of people. The third to come is unnamed. There are several possibilities, but as the most likely solution occurs during the French Revolution, the third would have to be Napoléon. However, because we do not know the meaning of Meysnier and Manthi, this is not certain.
Par ville Franche, Mascon en desarroy,
Dans les fagots seront soldats cachez
Changer de temple en prime pour le Roy,
Par de Chalon & Moulins tous hachez.
There are several Villefranche’s in France. As it literally means French Village, it could also refer to many other villages in France. There are also several Chalon’s in France. There is, however, only one Moulins, found in approximately the center of France. Fagots on line 2 refers to its original meaning, bundles of firewood. In other words, soldiers are hiding in the firewood.
The last clue, soldiers hidden in the firewood, places this event. This quatrain can only refer to when Louis XIV tried to forcibly convert all of the Protestants in France to Catholicism, in support of the then prevalent belief CUIUS REGIO, EIUS RELIGO — the religion of the ruler should be the religion of the realm. This was done in three steps. First, Louis closed Protestant churches and synods outside of edict regions and encouraged Protestants to convert to Catholicism. Second, responding to the fact that many Protestants were emigrating, Louis both forbade any Protestant from emigrating and had dragoons quarter in Protestant houses (hiding in the firewood) at their expense; this was a financial strain on the Protestants, resulting in more conversions. Finally, after the number of Protestants had considerably declined, Louis simply revoked the edict, causing a fairly large emigration from France and all but guaranteeing that almost all of France was Catholic.
Many people have stated that this was a stupid policy on the part of Louis. It lost a lot of skilled and useful subjects who could have supported France at the upcoming critical times. It certainly helped to build the League of Augsburg, which later became the Grand Alliance, against him. So the distress mentioned in the quatrain was very real for France. Still, Louis considered it a necessary price to achieve what he considered to be necessary: one people, one religion, one king!
Feu, flamme, faim, furt, farouche, fume,
Fera faillir, froissant fort, foy faucher :
Fils de Denté, toute Provence humée,
Chassé de regne, enragé sans cracher.
The quatrain is most specific. Fire and flame are references to war, but the use of both words indicates a more destructive, modern context. The stealthiness eliminates France during all of its wars, as well as the opposition during most of the wars. France was always quite direct in its combat and the enemies were also normally quite direct too. The two exceptions, the maneuvering of Marlborough during his last year in the War of the Spanish Succession, and the maneuvering of the Germans before their surprise attack from the Ardennes in 1940, are the exceptions. The timidity by smoke, however, eliminates the War of the Spanish Succession; Marlborough was certainly timid in his unwillingness to confront Villars after Malplaquet, but his stealthy maneuvering prior to avoid Villars at “Ne Plus Ultra” prior to his siege of Bouchain did not involve any smoke.
This leave the attack by the Germans in 1940. It was a stealthy attack for sure, the diversion into the Netherlands and Belgium completely fooled the French who advanced rapidly into Belgium, with disastrous consequences. The violence of the eventual attack from the Ardennes, combined with the smoke that came from the tanks, the aircraft and the guns of battle, easily obscured any and all information about the location of the German tanks. This paralyzed the French into timidity; “It is all over, we have lost,” was the refrain almost from the first week.
The paralysis of the French high command caused a general failure in the first few critical weeks of the battle. The defeatist attitude of Weygand, coupled with the defeatism of Petain, was fatal. The military collapsed, the nation was wounded (bruised) and France’s faith in itself was severely strained (pinched).
The last two lines refer to Hitler and the occupation of France by Germany. The sons of the teeth has to refer to the soldiers of Hitler. They caused all of France (Provence) to cry (sniff). Yet the British reign would ensure a resumption of the action without the French being able to forcibly remove the Germans from their territory (flared up without spitting).
Le grand secours venu de la Guyenne,
S’arrestera tout aupres de Poictiers :
Lyon rendu par Mont Luel &Vienne,
Et saceagez par tout gens de mestiers.
All of the locations are in France.
Assault farouche en Cypre se prepare,
La larme à l’oeil de ta ruine proche :
Byzance classe, Morisque si grand tare,
Deux differents, le grand vast par la roche.
In 1570, some years before this quatrain would be published by Sève, Cyprus was attacked by the forces of the Ottoman Empire. The leader of the attack was Piyale Pasha, who led 60,000 troops in the conquest of the isle. Over 20,000 citizens were killed, and all the churches and important buildings were looted. It was a terrible disaster to the Cyprus community. It was so bad it shocked the Europeans into assembling the fleet which would win the Battle of Lepanto.
There is some doubt about whether this is the correct interpretation, but only because of the time this Quatrain came out. If, as is almost certain, Nostradamus wrote this before the first book came out, then it is the correct solution. Otherwise this is either going to be a failed quatrain or it refers to an event in the future. However, because of when this came out, we may never know.
Deux corps, un chef, cháps divisez en deux,
Et puis respondre à quatre non ouys :
Petits pour Glands, apertius mal pour eux,
Pour d’Aigues foudre, pire pour Eussovis.
Glandes is either right next to or part of Coulon, France. Aigües is in Spain. Eussovis is unknown to me.
This sounds to me like a brief description of the War of the Spanish Succession. The leader would be the Sun King, Louis XIV. The field divided into two refers to the House of Bourbon now ruling both France and Spain. The four would be Prussia, Austria, Savoy and England, the major opponents in the war. The third line is indicative of the troubles France went through and the fourth line describes Spanish suffering, so the interpretation is very strong. In fact, I can find no other event that matches this quatrain, at least most of it.
The only thing preventing me from saying that it is definitely the War of the Spanish Succession is the word Eussovis. It is a critical problem because it can change the entire meaning of the quatrain.
Guerres, debats, à Blois guerre & tumulte,
Divers augets, adveux inopinables,
Entrer dedans chasteau Trompette, insulte :
Chasteau du Ha, qui en seront coulpables.
The key that this has to be fulfilled is the the mention of Blois. This almost has to have occurred during the Religious Wars, while Blois was the supreme seat of power. After Henri III died, Blois ceased to be important. Henri IV would mark the decline of Blois by transferring the richness of the Library of Blaise to Fontainebleau.
Bordeaux is represented here by the Castle Trompette and the Fortress of Ha. Castle Trompette is, or was for it no longer exits, on the Garonne River in Bordeaux. It was destroyed during the Religious Wars, though it was rebuilt. Louis XIV rebuilt it again but then it was closed down forever soon after 1686. Louis XVI sold it in 1787.
The Fortress of Ha is an older structure also in Bordeaux that predates Nostradamus. It was originally built soon after the Hundred Years War ended. It still stands to this day and it is considered to be an important historic landmark.
The city of Bordeaux saw action soon after the St. Bartholomew Day Massacre. Bordeaux had its own version on the 3rd of October, 1572. The quatrain is so descriptive of the massacre and fighting between Catholic and Huguenot during that terrible ordeal that this quatrain is fulfilled.
Note: Due to the time when this quatrain was revealed, there is a chance that it was written after the fact. I am not convinced of this, so many of the quatrains came out beforehand, but the timing of the revelation of this quatrain is proof that we can never truly know if it was written before or after the fact.
A tenir fort par fureur contraindra,
Tout cœur trembler, Langon advét terrible :
Le coup de pied mille pieds se rendra,
Guirond, Guaron, ne furent plus horribles.
My first thought was Napoléon’s 100 days, but he started out with six hundred, not a thousand foot. Of course, Nostradamus could have been wrong in his count. I must leave this to the reader to figure out.
EIOVAS proche esloigner, lac Leman,
Fort grands apprests, retour, confusion :
Loin des nepueux, du feu grand Supelman,
Tous de leur suyte....
While the last word of the third line rhymes with the last word of the first line, the last word of the fourth line does not rhyme with the last word of the second line. Also, the fourth line looks truncated. Almost certainly, this came down to us as an incomplete quatrain. How the last line actually ended is likely forever lost to us.
About the only other thing that can be said is that EIOVAS is obviously a reverse spelling of SAVOIE (Savoy). It is a relatively obvious anagram.
Fleuves, rivieres de mal seront obstacles,
La vielle flame d’ire non appaisée :
Courir en France, cecy comme d’oracles,
Maisons, manoirs, Palais secte rasée.
The last line, where everything is shaved, seems troubling. When one considers what happens to a beard when one shaves, the simile painted indicates a shaving of constructs and sects, a great destruction of all the buildings of France. The rest of the quatrain seems to support the destructive element. The only comfort is that the shave does not destroy the underlying roots of the beard, we can therefore take it that Nostradamus believe that the destruction will not destroy the underlying basis for French Civilization – its people.
As there has not been such a destruction, it is almost certain this will either never be fulfilled or it refers to a future event.