Century IX - Quatrain 83.
Sun twentieth of Taurus the earth will
tremble very mightily,
The great theatre full up will be
ruined.
The air sky and land will become
obscured and troubled.
Then the infidel will call upon God and
saints.
Michel Nostradamus was born in the Provence region of Francis in 1503
the product of a Jewish-Italian family. It was from his grandfather that
Nostradamus was introduced to the classical languages, mathematics and
astrology. He went on to study medicine at Montpellier where he attained his
bachelor’s degree. He then became a doctor and treated plague victims before
returning to Montpellier and gaining his doctorate. In 1534 Nostradamus married
and had two children but tragically, all three died of the plague. It was the
days of religious intolerance known as the inquisition. In 1538, a chance
comment on a statue of the Virgin Mary caused Nostradamus to be charged with
heresy and he was forced to wander as an outcast for the next six years. It was
during his wanderings that Nostradamus travelled to Venice and Sicily. In 1555,
Nostradamus published the first part of his ‘Centuries’. These were chapters
consisting of 100 stanzas each. Being of four lines in length, they were called
quatrains. These ‘Centuries’ and other apparent feats of prophecy while he was
alive brought Nostradamus lasting fame. Nostradamus died in 1566.
The quatrains of Nostradamus were written in a cramped style in a mix
of languages including French, Greek, Italian and Latin. His finished stanzas,
once they were composed, were thrown into the air and the scattered pile
gathered up and bound. These things were said to be done by Nostradamus to
prevent the Inquisition again prosecuting him or banning his works. It is also
believed he did so to keep a check on anyone wishing to use his prophecies for
ill gain. Perhaps Nostradamus may have indeed literally thrown his works into
the air but being a believer in destiny assumed that they did not fall in a
random pile. Instead, they fell, as fate would have it, in the order necessary
to weave an accurate rending of the future. A major problem with Nostradamus’
‘Quatrains’ either is that he refused to give a date for them and clouded them
in jargon. Number eighty-three in his Century IX, is one of a few in which he
does enabling researches to examine its veracity.
Sun twentieth of Taurus the earth will tremble very
mightily.
The first line is how some astrologers in Nostradamus’ era would give the date of April the 10th. All that can be assumed is that whichever year the Quatrain is about it must have been for sometime after 1555, when he wrote it. Nostradamus tells that the earth will tremble very mightily. This could mean all matter of things, an earthquake, volcano, or explosion of some sort. No great earthquake has yet occurred on this date, or great explosion, but when it comes to a volcano not only has there been an eruption on this date but the greatest eruption of all. When most people think of volcanic eruptions three spring to mind, Vesuvius, Krakatoa and Mt St. Helens, but none of these events compares with the eruption of Tambora.
The great theatre full up will be ruined.
What event Nostradamus meant in his first line of the Quatrain is might
be explained with the second. When Vesuvius erupted its disastrous affects upon
the Roman Seaside Tourist City of Pompeii was magnified by the fact that it
happened at the height of the tourist season. Pompeii was a popular destination
for theatregoers and fans of the arena. When Vesuvius erupted, Pompeii that
normally housed 2,000 occupants had 20,000 people watching the spectacles
offered by the gladiators and the tragic theatre. The scene was set for a great
loss of lives. Even the structure, called by Romans and also known by modern
Historians as the Great Theatre, was full to capacity before being covered by
volcanic ash. Perhaps in this second line Nostradamus warns that when his
prophesied eruption occurs the stage will be set to allow the disaster to be of
cataclysmic consequences.
The Tambora eruption was one of the most powerful in history. It occurred on the island of Sumbawa within the Indonesian archipelago. The force of a volcanic eruption is measured on the VEI, (Volcanic Explosivity Index) Tambora was VEI-7 defined as a super-colossal eruption while Krakatoa in comparison was VEI-6 and Mt. St. Helens was VEI-5. The eruption of Tambora was the most explosive force in the last ten thousand years and had far reaching consequences to the climate of the earth.
The air sky and land will become obscured and
troubled.
Tambora was a volcanic cone over four kilometres high and sixty
kilometres in diameter covered in jungle. The first signs the volcano was to
erupt began on April 5 when deep rumblings could be heard. By April 6, the
skies began to darken. On the afternoon of April 10, the eruption proper began
lasting well into the night and by early morning of April 11 the eruption had
thrown one-point-seven-million tons of earth and ash into the atmosphere. The
eruption killed twelve-thousand people almost immediately and another 80,0000
people died from hunger and disease in the following weeks. This was partly due
to the fifty
cubic kilometres of magma expelled and much of it falling as ash to a depth of
one centimetre on the nearby half a million square kilometres. The debris ejected into the
atmosphere had far reaching consequences. This dust filtered the sun’s light
causing a mini-ice age and the following year of 1816 was dubbed the ‘year
without summer’ and ‘eighteen hundred and froze to death’. Summer in New
England brought blizzards. Frosts also killed crops in Canada causing the
country to suffer a dangerous food shortage. In France crops blighted by cold
meant that shipments of food were protected by armed guards to prevent looting
by starving citizens and food riots broke out. Riots also occurred in Britain
where starving citizens broke into grain warehouses. Even Switzerland
experienced rioting where the government declared a national emergency. Corn
prices in Europe and America doubled. Cold weather and heavy rains caused much
of Europe to suffer famine. In Ireland, it rained for 142 out of 153 days of
summer and 65,000 people died of hunger and disease. The epidemics mainly of
typhoid spread through Europe killing over 200,000 people. In the Atlantic Sea
ice formed hindering shipping and in Northern Europe glaciers were measured
advancing down mountains.
Then the infidel will call upon God and saints.
In 1809, Pope Pius VII issued a papal bull excommunicating Napoleon
from the Catholic Church. From then on Napoleon was expelled from the Christian
society. Forever considered an Infidel Napoleon was forbidden to enter a Roman
Catholic Church, attend church service or receive the sacrament. It was on
April 11 1815, when Tambora was at the height of its fury that Napoleon
composed and signed his abdication at the Palace of Fontainebleau. In his
declaration, Napoleon called upon others to recall his oath to God. His letter
of abdication read:
‘The allied powers having proclaimed the Emperor Napoleon
to be the sole remaining obstacle to the re-establishment of peace in Europe,
Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares his renunciation of the
thrones of France and Italy, for himself and his heirs, and that there is no
personal sacrifice, even that of life itself, that he is not prepared to make
in the interests of France.
Napoleon.’
The allies signed all documents pertaining to Napoleon’s dethronement
at 1:00 a.m. April 12. It was on April 13, as Tambora began once more to settle
that Napoleon attempted suicide. He did it by drinking a vial of poison he
always carried on a chain around his neck. It had been concocted two years
before by his physician, although Napoleon almost died the poison had become
weakened over time. Napoleon went into exile but returned to once more attempt
to gain control of Europe. This culminated on June 16 to 18, 1816 when Napoleon
fought and lost the battle of Waterloo. The reasons for his defeat are many but
some now suggest that it was the affects of the Tambora volcano that
contributed to Napoleon’s downfall.
The inclement and surprisingly rain soaked summer brought
by the volcano caused swamp-like conditions hindering Napoleon’s troops who
were advancing to the final battle of Waterloo. Thunderstorms and rain showers
continually assaulted Napoleon’s advancing forces. All through the journey to
Waterloo the wheels of the French cannon wagons sunk into the mud roads. This
coupled with the driving rain and wind severely slowed and weakened Napoleon’s
men. The powder of their muskets became wet causing many of them to fail to
fire. Jardin Ainé, an aid responsible for
Napoleon’s horse, described the type of condition’s Napoleon and his troops
faced:
‘On the 17th of June,
Napoleon left the village where he had slept, and visited the battlefield of
the evening before…At this time a violent storm threw into confusion the whole
French army...At last the courage of the French overcame the horrible weather…
in the evening Napoleon visited the outposts in spite of the heavy rain…At
seven o'clock, Napoleon said he wished to bivouac; it was pointed out to him
that he was in a ploughed field and in mud up to the knees…He retraced his steps
at its height owing to the passing of the whole of the Imperial Guard which was
hastening to seek shelter from the bad weather.’
Customarily Napoleon, in battle, would launch his main attack in early morning but the muddy ground forced Napoleon to postpone his it until 1pm to allow the ground to dry. A wet ground would have meant his cavalry would be impeded and that his artillery, which relied on hard ground for the cannonballs to ricochet, would be far less effective. This delay gave the enemy Prussian corps enough time to strike his army’s flank. Some military historians agree that the poor weather played a major, if not decisive role in the Battle of Waterloo. The poor weather conditions meant that much of Napoleon’s heavy artillery were too late to arrive severely weakening Napoleon’s offensive capability.
ADDENDUM
Century IX - Quatrain
83. French Edition:
Sol vingt de taurus si fort terre
trembler,
Le grand theatre rempli ruinera,
L'air, ciel & terre obscurcir & troubler,
Lors l'infidelle Dieu & sainctz voguera.
…
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Jardin
Ainé’s account of the Battle of Waterloo was sourced from. Mackenzie Macbride,
ed., With Napoleon at Waterloo and other Unpublished Documents of the Waterloo
and Pennsular Campaigns (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1911), pp. 181-185.
All Copyright 2002.
Richard.A.Patterson.
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