The true prophecies or prognostications of Michael Nostradamus, physician to Henry II. Francis II. and Charles IX. Kings of France, and one of the best astronomers that ever were. / A work full of curiosity and learning. Translated and commented by Theophilus de Garencieres, Doctor in Physick Colleg. Lond.

ANNOT.

By the Serpents, the Author being a Roman Catholick, meaneth the Protestants, who then began to appear numerous in the Reigns of Francis the I. and Henry the II. in whose time the Admiral Coligny was the chief among them, for his great feats in War.

These Serpents or Protestants begun to encompass the Are, that is to say, the Church and the Altar, which in Latin is called Ara.

And that happened when the Trojan-blood was vexed by Spain. By the Trojan-blood, the Author meaneth the French blood, according to the vulgar opinion, that the French are descended from the Trojans. The French were then vexed by the Spaniards, at the Battle of St. Laurence, and at the taking of St. Quentin, and other places in the Year 1557.

The third Verse saith by them, that is, by the Protestants a great number shall perish, that is to say, a great number of French. Among whom the Admiral of Chatillon having done what was possible to be done at the defence of St. Quentin, and seeing the Town taken, run away with three more, and hid himself among the Rushes that are in the Boggs about the Town, where he was found, and carried Prisoner to the Duke of Savoy, who received him very honorably, according to his valour and deserts.

Observe that the word Saignes here signifieth in old Provencal a Marish.

XX.

ANNOT.

All the Cities mentioned in the first Verse are seated by the River of Loire, and are threatned here of a sudden change, and that some strangers shall set up their Tents against them, and chiefly at Rennes, there shall be an Earth-quake felt both by Sea and Land.

XXI.

ANNOT.

It is a Rock in the middle of the Sea, whose Roots are fed by a white clay, which is at the foot of this Rock, in the bottom of the Sea, and therefore called deep.

This clay being softned, and dissolved by the Sea-water, shall appear upon the superficies of it like milk about the Rock. Those that shall see this wonder, being ignorant that in the bottom there is a milky clay, shall in vain be troubled at it, and shall not dare to touch it.

XXII.

ANNOT.

This is a great Riddle, which was never found out till now; and had I not been born in the Countrey where the History did happen, it might have been unknown to this day, and buried in oblivion.

In the year of the Lord 1613. which was that of my Birth. There was in the Town of Sens a Taylors Wife named Columba Chatry, who presently after her marriage conceived, and for the space of 28. years persuaded her self to be with Child, had all the signs of it in the beginning of her impregnation, and having gone her compleat time, she begun to feel the pains of a woman in Labour, with great gripings in the Guts. The Urine was suppressed for a while, but at last it broke out with a strong current. This quantity of water not coming so much out of the Bladder as was supposed, as from the womb, by the breaking of the Membrane, called Amnion, seeing that with those serous excrements, she avoided some conjealed blood. After that her breast begun to fall, and the Child had little or no motion, her pains being less than they were, which caused no small admiration to the Midwifes, who expected a safe deliverance. For the space of three years after, this woman kept her Bed, and was brought to Deaths door, complaining of gripings and a hard swelling, which she desired all the Physitians and Chyrurgeons to feel, having lost all appetite, but that little which she recovered by the use of sharp things, as Verjuice, Lemmons, &c. she was wont to say to her Neighbours, that she bare a Child that should be the cause of her death. After she was dead, her Husband got two experienced Chyrurgeons to open her body, who having opened the belly, and taken away the Peritonæum, saw the Womb of several colours, as the flesh that is about the head and neck of a Turky-cock, but as it were of a Horny substance. They begun to make an incision in it with a Rasour, but finding it resisted the edge, they begun to use their Incision knives with all their strength; at last one of them by chance hit the Scull, and after that some Ribs, and then the Shoulder bone, by which, knowing that there was bones contained in that lump, with greater strength they made a deeper incision, and having parted the edges of the womb, saw in the bottom of the womb a Child, wrapped in the membrane, called Allantoides; at which the Chyrugeons wondering, sent for the Physitians to have their opinion in a thing that is almost beyond belief; in the mean time people flocking thither from all parts, and troubling the Chyrurgeons in their operation; they thought good to take away with their Instruments all that Lump, as a Tree from its Roots, and to carry it home, that they might with more time and leasure examine the whole Anatomy of it. In that hasty pulling out of the Child, they had no time to observe what Chorion it had, what umbilical Vessels, and what connexion there was of the Allantoides with the Womb, and with the Child, chiefly about the right hip, the Buttocks, and the Back-bone being all grown solid together.

The scituation of the Child was almost Spherical, the face leaning upon the breast, and the Nostrils upon the Knees; the bones of the Head were but thin, but very hard, and shining like Horn; the skin of the Head was hairy in many places; the head did hang so much upon the left arm, that the Ear, and part of the skull had given way to the Shoulder-bone; the Elbow was bent towards the Shoulder stretching only his hand, which was so close shut, and the fingers sticking so fast to the Palm of it, that although they did appear distinct one from another, nevertheless it was all but one and the same stone; the right arm did stretch its hand towards the Navel, which unadvisedly was broken by the wrist, and left in the Mothers Belly; the left Thigh, Knee and Leg were on the top of the right ones, with which they were so entangled, that the left heel, and the sole of the foot were planted upon the right foot, who seemed to have given place to them, and were almost inseparably joyned; for all such hardness of the matter, the body was not less than that of other Children of the same age, but kept a perfect fulness and proportion all the internal parts, as the Brains, the Heart, the Liver, had their natural shape, and were not altogether so hard as the external parts, so that to this very day this little body defieth all kind of corruption.

This Child was kept in my time by one Mr. Michel a Chirurgion of Sens, who kindly shewed it to all the strangers that came far and near to see it. The Fame of it was so great, that Doctor Mayerne coming from Switzerland to England, took his way through Sens to see it, and would have perswaded King Charles I. to buy it, as himself told me; since that I hear it was fallen into the hands of the Venetians. In this History there is two observable wonders. One, that the Child dying in the Womb, did not corrupt, and so cause the death of its Mother. The other, by what vertue or power of the body this child was petrified, seeing that the Womb is a hot and moist place, and therefore more subject to putrifaction. Those that will satisfie themselves with the reasons of it, and the truth of the History, may read Johannes Alibosius Physician of Sens, who was an eye witness of it, and Sennertus in his book of Sympt. quam feminis in utero accidant.

Now this accident being so rare, and without parallel, our Author thought fit to foretel it, and to cover it in abscure tearms, that he might not appear ridiculous in so admirable an event. When therefore he saith, That which shall live and shall have no Sense, he meaneth this λιθοπαίδιον or child petrified, which had a Life while it was in the Mothers belly, being tied to it by the several Vessels and connexions, known to Anatomists, and yet was senseless in that it was petrified. When in the second verse he saith, The Iron shall destroy the art of it, he meaneth that it should be spoiled by the rasour, in the two last verses he saith, that the Towns of Autun, Chalons, Langres, and Sens the Town in which this did happen should that same year suffer much damage by Hail and Ice, which did come to pass, as many persons may justify in that Countrey, that are alive to this day.

XXIII.

ANNOT.

This signifieth a particular accident, viz. that in the third Month, which is that of March, at the rising of the Sun, the Boar and the Leopard, that is, two persons of quality hidden under these names, shall go into the fields to fight a Duel. The Leopard one of them being weary, shall lift up his eyes to Heaven, calling upon God, and thereupon shall see an Eagle playing about the Sun, that is, shall get the Victory, of which the Eagle is the Emblem.

XXIV.

ANNOT.

This name of new City is appropriated to several ones in every Countrey. The French have many Villeneufuas, the Germans many Newstads, the Italians and Spaniards many Villanovas, so that it is hard to guess which of them the Author meaneth. The missing of this dore makes the rest of the Prophecie so obscure, that I had rather leave it to the liberty of the Reader, than to pretend a true explication of it. I shall only say, that Cremona and Mantua are two famous Towns in Italy, which are here threatned.

XXV.

ANNOT.

The Prophecie is concerning the body of a famous Churchman, which was lost, and shall be found again, and worshiped as a Demy-God, but before the Moon hath run her great age, which is of 13 Months, it shall be vilified and dishonoured.

XXVI.

ANNOT.

This is concerning some great man, who being premonished by a common Carrier not to travel upon a certain day, did slight the advice, and was strucken by Lightning in the day time, and another in the night; at the same time there was a fight at Rhemes, and the Plague at London and in Tuscany, which in Latin is called Etruria.

XXVII.

ANNOT.

The sense of it is, that some body (who is named here Guyen) being under an Oak shall be strucken with the lightning, and that near that place there is a great Treasure, that hath been many years a gathering, and that he who shall find it shall die, being shot in the eye with a Fire-lock.

XXVIII.

ANNOT.

The Tower of Bouk is a strong place seated by the Rhosne, where it entereth into the Mediterranean Sea; it is said here that it shall be in fear of a Barbarian Fleet, and after that of a Spanish one, and that both the Spaniard and the French shall have great losses in Cattle, People and Goods, and this shall happen when the Sun shall be in the Signs of Taurus and Libra.

XXIX.

ANNOT.

This signifieth no more but that after, a Fish, Terrestrial and Aquatick, that is which, liveth in Land and Water, called by the Greeks αμφίβιον, shall be cast upon the Sand by a storm, then a little while after, that Town which lieth near to that place where the Fish was cast, shall be Besieged by her Enemies, who shall come by Sea.

XXX.

ANNOT.

It is a Forrein Ship which by a storm shall be driven to an unknown Harbour, and notwithstanding the signs that shall be made to it with Branches, by those that are upon the Land to beware of the entrance of the Harbour, it shall be cast away, and plundered; thus a good advice shall come too late.

XXXI.

ANNOT.

That is, the Wars shall last so long in France after the death of one King of Spain, till three great ones shall challenge an uncertain Victory, these three great ones are the Emperour designed by the Aigle, the King of France by the Cock, and the Turk by the Moon, and this shall happen when the Sun is in the sign of the Lion. I suppose that came to pass in the time of Charles the V. Henry the II. and Soliman. For the Turk had no great odds upon the Emperour, nor he upon the King of France.

XXXII.

ANNOT.

This is concerning the same Charles the V. Emperour, who about three years before his death, being weary of the World, resigned his Dominions of Spain and of the Low-Countries, to his Son Philip the II. and his Empire to his Brother Ferdinand, and retired himself into a Monastery of Castile, called l’Escurial, which after his death, was much enlarged and beautified by his Son Philip: and that is the meaning of our Author when he saith:

For this Escurial being seated in a Desert place of a County of Spain, called Castilia, which the Spanish vanity calleth a Kingdom, (whose Use, Fruit, or Revenues, the said Charles only reserved for his maintenance) is now by the Spaniards accounted to be the eighth wonder of the World.

XXXIII.

ANNOT.

The meaning of this is, that a great Captain, Commander of the Imperial Forces, shall cause a Bridge that was built near a spacious Plain to be thrown down. The City near the Bridge being terrified at it, shall shut up their Gates against him.

XXXIV.

ANNOT.

It is a Hawk which in presence of two Armies ready to give Battle, shall fly to a window and perch upon it, in the presence of them all, one of the Armies shall take it for a good sign; and the other, for an ambiguous and sinister one. In Conclusion, the weaker party shall get the Victory.

XXXV.

ANNOT.

This is one of the Prophecies that hath put our Author in credit, as well for the clearness as for the true event of it.

Cæsar Nostradamus our Authors son, in his History of Provence, writeth that by this Stanza his father intended to foretell the manner of Henry the second’s death.

The French Histories relate that this great Prince desiring to honour the Nuptial of his Daughter Elizabeth, married to Philip II. King of Spain, did appoint a Tournament to be kept in St. Anthony’s street in Paris, where himself would be one of the Defendants against all comers, and for that purpose chose for his companions and associates Don Alfonso d’Este Duke of Ferrara, and Francis of Lorrain, Duke of Guise.

The Tornament being almost ended, in which the King had shewed much Valour being mounted upon a Horse of the Duke of Savoy, Philibert’s, Emanuel his Brother in Law, this Duke intreated the King to leave off, because he had got the Victory; and the weather was hot, and the night drawing on: But this Martial King would need break one Launce more, and commanded the Captain Gabriel de Lorges to be called, a young and valiant Lord and Captain of the Scottish Guard. Being come, the King commanded him to run against him, which he refused a great while; but the King waxing angry, he obeyed, and set Spurs to his Horse, he did hit the King in the lower part of his Beaver, the Launce was broken into shivers, and the mean stump lifting up the Beaver, a splinter got in, and wounded the King a little above the right Eye, where finding the Bone too hard, it went very deep under the said Eye, and broke some Veins belonging to the Membrane, called Pia Mater.

The blow was so violent that the King bended his head towards the lists, and fell, into a Swound, being presently disarmed, they perceived the splinter of the Launce in his Eye, and his face all bloody. He lived ten days after, and died with great Convulsions, because the Sinews were offended, whereupon he suffered grievous Torment.

His death was also foretold by Luke Gaurick a great Astrologer, who being constrained by the Queen Catharine of Medicis, to tell her by what kind of death her Husband should end his days, told her it should be in a Duel, which made him to be hissed at, Kings being exempted of those accidents.

According to this Narrative the Author calleth the King an old Lion, and the Captain Lorges, since Earl of Montgomery, the young Lion; because both fought like Lions. The young Lion overcame the old one in Martial field, and in a fight of one against one, and consequently a Duel.

He overcame him by putting his Eye out in a Golden Cage, that is, in his Gilded Helmet.

Of which Wound there came another, because the blood of some broken Veins, creeping into the Brains by the vehement agitation of the head, caused an Impostume there, which could not be remedied: therefore the Author saith two Wounds from one, that is, one wound made two: and the King died of a cruel death, as we have said before.

XXXVI.

ANNOT.

The words of this are plain, though it be questionable whether the thing is come to pass already, or not.

XXXVII.

ANNOT.

The two first verses I believe are concerning the Battle of Saint Denis, which was fought in the Evening hard by Paris, and where the Constable of Montmorency was kill’d, which made that great people of Paris to be doubtful.

The other two Verses I leave to the interpretation of the Reader.

XXXVIII.

ANNOT.

This Stanza being full of Figures and Equivoques, I will not interpose my Judgement in it, lest I undertake too much, and perform too little.

XXXIX.

ANNOT.

The Author hath purposely obscured this Prophecie in the third Verse, to take away the Knowledge of it from the Reader; because the parties concerned were then alive, viz. Philip II. King of Spain, who caused his only son Don Carlo to be strangled in his bed, for suspicion of being too familiar with his wife Elizabeth of France, and Daughter to Henry II. The last Verse saith, that he was so implacable, that he would read neither Card nor Packet, that is, no requests.

XL.

ANNOT.

There is two things in this Prognostication, the first that in Bizance, which is Constantinople, a Troop of tumultuous persons gathered together, and dissembling their folly, shall cause an alteration in the Laws.

The other, that some Bassa come out of Ægypt, shall perswade them at Constantinople to alter their Coin, and the allay of it.

XLI.

ANNOT.

After the taking of Vulpian, the French came to Montcalvo, and in the night surprized it by Scalado, and Paradin saith, that not a drop of Blood was shed on either side.

The Town being taken, the Citadel did hold out a good while, and at last did surrender, Don Arbre, who was in the place of the Marques of Pescaire, and of the Duke of d’Alva, knowing that the besieged had not made a sufficient resistance, caused the Captain, and eleven more of the chief ones to be hanged; because the place was of consequence, and those within had not made a sufficient resistance.

The Author saith in the first Verse, Siege was laid to a City, that is, it was resolved to besiege Montcalvo, as the Martial of Brissac had advised. In the execution it was assaulted by night, in the taking few escaped; for they were all taken, and yielded to the Victorious. There were none killed or wounded, all were taken, except few who ran away, and carried the news to the Spaniards.

At the same time a fight not far from the Sea, that is, at the same time there was another Battle by the Sea, between the Spaniards and the Pope, as we shall shew hereafter.

The third and fourth Verses are concerning a particular accident, which happened presently after the taking of Montcalvo, which is, that a woman seeing her Son come back safe, fell in a swound, or died for joy, because knowing the danger wherein he was, she had lost all hopes of ever seeing him. This fellow had brought Poison in a Letter to give to one that had not rewarded him according to his desire. His wickedness being discovered, his Master put him in Prison, whence he escaped, and came back again to Montcalvo; the Author speaketh of the same in another place, which we shall set down in its order.

XLII.

ANNOT.

The tenth of the Calends of April is the 23. of March, Gothik account signifieth the old account of the Calendar, before the reformation of it by Pope Gregory the XIII. which old account is called here Gothik, because it is kept still by the Northern Nations, which do not acknowledge the Pope, as Sweden, Denmark, Holland, England, &c. at that time saith our Author, a Magician shall be raised up by malitious persons; which fire or tumult being put out, that Diabolical assembly will go about to seek the bones of two famous Magicians, viz. Damant and Psellin that were dead before.

XLIII.

ANNOT.

This will not seem incredible to those that have read the English Chronicles, who relates that in a County of England (I think it is Herefordshire) there was an Earthquake, which transposed a large piece of ground in another place, with the Trees that were in it, and if I remember well, half a Chappel, those that have the Books may examine the truth of the History, and satisfie themselves better.

XLIV.

ANNOT.

This is a true Prophecy of the miserable condition of the Church and Clergy in our Fore-fathers times, and chiefly of Henry the II. in France, and Henry the VIII. in England, when in the beginning of the Reformation there was such a confusion of opinions, and such unsettledness in Ecclesiastical Government, that sometimes the Popish party prevailed, and put to death the Opposers; at another time the Protestants, who drove away the Monks, Abbots and Novices, as is expressed here, and proved true in Henry the VIII. time. As for what he saith, that Honey shall be much dearer than Wax. It is to be understood of the downfal of the Romish Religion, who maketh use of Wax Candles and Tapers in their superstitious ceremonies, as if he would say, that the Romish Religion being down, Wax shall be cheap, and Honey dear.

XLV.