Century 8

VIII.1

[source unidentified]

[At] Pau, Nay, Loron [Oloron] there shall be more fire than blood:
swimming the Aude, the lord shall flee to the nearby streams.
He shall refuse entry to the magpies:
the overlord of the Durance shall hold them in prison.

VIII.2

[after Julius Obsequens’s On Omens, assimilated to current events (see IX.37)]

[At] Condom and Auch and around Mirande,
I see fire from the sky [lightning] surrounding them.
Sun and Mars in conjunction in Leo: then at Marmande
lightning, great hail, a wall falls into the Garonne.

VIII.3

[source unidentified]

Within the strong castle of Vigiliano and Riviera
the younger son of Nancy shall be imprisoned.
In Turin the first shall be burned
when Lyon shall be stricken with grief.

VIII.4

[after the contemporary conflicts between France and the Holy Roman Empire, with the imagery based on the Latin Epigrams of Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523)]

The Cock shall be received within Monaco.
The Cardinal of France shall appear:
he shall be deceived by the Roman legation.
The weaker the Eagle, the stronger the Cock shall become.

VIII.5

[after the funeral cortege of King François I in 1547, which processed all over the country, stopping each night for a service in a different, brilliantly lit Catholic church]

There shall appear, in an ornate, brilliantly lit church,
the lamp and the candle at Borne and Breteuil:
for [the abbey of] La Lucerne [in Normandy?] the [whole] canton [shall] turn its steps
when the great Cock shall be seen in his coffin.

VIII.6

[after the Mirabilis Liber of 1522/3]

Blazing light shall appear at Lyon
shining: Malta, captured, suddenly shall be wiped out.
In Sardinia, the Moor shall negotiate deceitfully:
Geneva [Genoa] at London [at sea?], feigning treason towards the Cock.

VIII.7

[after the Battle of Pavia of 25 February 1525, and the capture and subsequent abduction to Spain of King François I]

Vercelli, Milan shall announce the news
[that] the wound shall have been dealt at Pavia.
Water, blood shall flow through Siena, fire through Florence:
the One And Only shall fall from high to low, calling ‘Help me!’

VIII.8

[after a ‘wooden horse’ operation attempted by Imperial troops at Turin in 1543]

Near Cisterna, shut up in casks,
Chivasso shall engage in a plot for the Eagle.
The elected one removed, he and his men [shall be] shut up:
within Turin, his wife seized and abducted.

VIII.9

[after the Mirabilis Liber of 1522/3, with the imagery presumably based on the Latin Epigrams of Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523)]

While the Eagle shall be engaged with the Cock at Savona,
on the Eastern Sea [Mediterranean] and in Hungary,
the army at [there shall be fighting at] Naples, Palermo, [and in] the marches of Ancona.
In Rome and Venice the horrible yells/calls of the Barbarians [Arabs].

VIII.10

[presumably after the Mirabilis Liber of 1522/3]

A mighty stench shall come out of Lausanne
such that nobody shall know its origin.
They shall expel all the aliens:
fire seen in the sky, the foreign race defeated.

VIII.11

[after the accidental burning of the Palazzo della Raggione at Vicenza in 1496 and the defeat of Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois, at nearby Urbino in 1502]

A multitude of folk shall appear at Vicenza:
without force, fire shall burn down the Basilica.
Near Lunigiana the Lord of Valenza defeated
when Venice shall be facing the attacks of the Moor.

VIII.12

[after the looting of the convoy carrying their own wages by Swiss mercenaries engaged by Odet de Grailly de Foix-Lautrec on behalf of François I before the battle of Marignano in 1515]

There shall appear near Buffalora
the High and Mighty who shall enter Milan:
the Abbé of Foix with those of Saint-Maur
shall play the rogue dressed as serfs.

VIII.13

[seemingly after Machiavelli’s account, in his Istorie Fiorentine of the 1520s, of an episode from 6th century Lombard history, with a mythological back-reference to the ancient story of King Proetus and his wife’s guest Bellerophon]

The monk-crusader sent mad by love
shall cause Bellerophon to die through Proetus.
[With] Troops at Milan, the woman shall be maddened:
the potion drunk, both of them shall then die.

VIII.14

[after the demise of Chancellor Antoine Duprat, Cardinal Archbishop of Sens and papal legate, suspected in 1530 of having debased and sold gold from the ransom collected for handing over to the Empire for the release of François I in 1526 (see IV.88)]

The great credit of gold, the abundance of silver
shall cause honour to be blinded by greed;
the offence of adulteration shall become known,
which shall redound to his great dishonour.

VIII.15

[after the report by Agrippa d’Aubigné of the chronic insecurity on the borders of Christendom caused by the summoning in aid of Suleiman the Magnificent and his Turkish forces against her own Chancellor by Isabella of Pannonia in 1539]

Towards the North great exertions by a mannish woman
shall vex Europe and almost all the world.
The two eclipses [failed leaders] she shall put into such a rout,
and shall force life or death on the Hungarians.

VIII.16

[after Plato’s Timaeus and the Mirabilis Liber of 1522/3]

At the place where Jason had his ship built
there shall be such a great and sudden flood
that people shall have neither place not land to grab onto.
The waters shall climb Olympic Fesulan [broad-based Olympus].

VIII.17

[possibly after the disintegration of the Carolingian empire following its division by the treaty of Verdun of AD 843 between the three sons of Charlemagne’s heir Louis I (namely Louis the German, Charles the Bald and Lothair I), which led to attacks on Western Europe by three other ‘brothers’ – the Vikings from the north, the Magyars from the east and the Saracens from the south, who sacked both Naples and Genoa]

The well-heeled shall suddenly be cast down:
by three brothers the world [shall be] disturbed.
Enemies shall seize the marine city [Naples? Genoa?]:
hunger, fire, blood, plague, all ills redoubled.

VIII.18

[possibly after the apocryphal administration of poisons by Catherine de Médicis]

That which came forth from Florence shall be the cause of his death
which some time before had been drunk by young and old;
through the Three Lilies, that shall give him such pause,
through her fruit [efforts] as safe as ripe, raw meat.

VIII.19

[after an unidentified dispute over the Papal succession]

To support the great troubled Cope [Pope]
the reds [Cardinals] shall march in order to enlighten him:
by death his family shall be almost overwhelmed.
The reddest red ones [The most militant Catholic Cardinals] shall kill the red one.

VIII.20

[after a further unidentified dispute over the Papal succession]

The false message about the rigged election
shall run through the city, the broken pact having been cancelled:
votes bought, the [Sistine] chapel stained with blood,
power contracted to another.

VIII.21

[after the arrival of the Plague in Europe in 1347/8 aboard three Genoan vessels, assimilated to the Muslim invasion scenario of the Mirabilis Liber of 1522/3]

Into the port of Agde three galleys shall enter
carrying the infection, not the faith, and pestilence.
From overseas they shall carry off a million,
and break out of their bridgehead at the third try.

VIII.22

[after the brutal putting down by Montmorency of the salt-tax revolt of 1548/9]

Coursan, Narbonne regarding salt shall warn
fat Tuchan: Perpignan shall be betrayed.
The red [Catholic?] town shall not be prepared to consent to it.
A high-flying, grey flag: life extinguished.

VIII.23

[after an unidentified piece of contemporary court scandal]

Letters shall be found in the Queen’s coffers,
no signature and no name of author:
by the government the offers shall be concealed,
so that nobody knows who the lover is.

VIII.24

[source unidentified]

The lieutenant at the entrance door
shall fell the Lord of Perpignan.
In thinking to flee to Montpertuis
the bastard of Lusignan shall be deceived.

VIII.25

[source unidentified]

The lover’s heart, awakened by secret love
in the stream shall cause the lady to be ravished.
Lustful [herself], she shall pretend to be only semi-wronged.
The father shall deprive the body of both [parties] of its soul.

VIII.26

[after the discovery of archaeological remains connected with C. Porcius Cato, grandson of the famous Censor, taken as an omen for political moves within the Hapsburg empire]

The bones [timbers?] of Cato [shall be] found in Barcelona,
found where they were placed, rotting in the dirt.
The Lord of Nettingen [?] shall desire Pamplona:
drizzle/mist at the abbey of Montserrat.

VIII.27

[after an unidentified archaeological discovery near the aqueduct at Le Muy]

[On] The way of waters [aqueduct], one arch upon the other,
[over] Le Muy’s desert (apart from tare and broom)
the inscription [shall be found] of the Phoenix Emperor,
seen in it what is seen by no other.

VIII.28

[after the discovery, following the disastrous floods of 9 September 1557, of numerous pagan ritual objects from the now-ruined temple of Diana that had been thrown into the Sacred Lake at Nîmes with the coming of Christianity]

The puffed up images of gold and silver,
which after the sack were thrown into the lake,
when found, shall astonish and disturb everybody.
The inscription[s] on the marble shall be interpreted as laws.

VIII.29

[after the rumoured rediscovery of the Sacred Gold of Toulouse, looted and misappropriated by Quintus Servilius Caepio in 106 BC]

At the fourth pillar long Sacred to Saturn [of Saint-Sernin],
[when] split apart by earthquake and flood,
under the Saturnine building an urn shall be found –
the gold carried off by Caepio – and then restored.

VIII.30

[after yet another archaeological rediscovery]

In Toulouse, not far from the Belvedere,
[while] digging a long trench for a palais de spectacles,
treasure [shall be] found that shall puzzle everyone
in two places and near the Basacle.

VIII.31

[after contemporary squabbles between France and the Holy Roman Empire involving the Marquis of Pescara]

At first, great fruit the prince of Pescara [shall bear],
[but] then he shall become truly cruel and wicked.
In Venice he shall lose his proud glory,
and shall be put down by the younger lunar one [Henri II?].

VIII.32

[after the death in 1492 of Charles VIII and the accession and secret courtship of his cousin (not nephew) Louis XII]

Beware, French king, of your nephew
who shall act as if your only son:
he shall be murdered while paying his vows to Venus [love],
in nightly company only three and six [months?].

VIII.33

[source unidentified]

The lord shall be born of Verona and Vincenza
who shall bear a most unworthy nickname:
he who at Venice shall desire to take vengeance,
[shall] himself [be] captured through the sign of a watchman.

VIII.34

[source unidentified]

After the victory of the Lion at Lyon,
there shall be great slaughter on the Jura Mountains:
removed by Allobroges [shall be] a seventh of a million.
The Lion scourged, at [St Paul de] Mausole [his] death and tomb.

VIII.35

[apparently after a military campaign involving bad weather in southwestern France]

Where into the Garonne the Baise flows,
and [in] the forest not far from Damazan,
the marshes [shall be] frozen, then hail and north wind.
The Dordonnais shall be frozen through getting the month wrong.

VIII.36

[after the 15th-century project by Louis de Chalon-Arlay to link the Franche-Comté with the Duchy of Burgundy, using the remains of existing Roman roads and watchtowers]

He shall be committed to join the Comté with the Duchy
from Lons-le-Saulnier, Saint Aubin and Bellevesvre.
paving [the route] with marble long plundered from [Roman watch-]towers,
The name of Bletteram shall survive the masterpiece!

VIII.37

[after the imprisonment in the Tower of London of Henri VI of England following the seizure of the throne in 1461 by Edward of York]

The fortress by the Thames
shall fall when the king is locked up inside.
Near the bridge he shall be seen in shirtsleeves,
one facing death, then behind bars inside the fortress.

VIII.38

[source unidentified, apparently associated with the predictions of the Mirabilis Liber]

The King of Blois shall reign in Avignon,
once more the people’s unique ruler.
Into the waters of the Rhône he shall cast over the walls
up to five, the last one near Christmas [?].

VIII.39

[source unidentified]

He who shall have been for [in favour of] the Byzantine [Turkish] prince
shall be carried off [tolerated?] by the prince of Toulouse.
The trust of [the Lord of] Foix in the Toulousan leader
shall fail him, [yet he] shall not refuse the bride.

VIII.40

[after an unknown incident involving the Jews of Toulouse]

The blood of the Just by Taur [the church of St-Saturnin-de-la-Tour] and La Daurade [the church of Ste-Marie-de-la-Dorade]
in order to avenge themselves against the Saturnines.
into the new lake the mob shall cast,
then they shall march against [the Duke of] Alba.

VIII.41

[presumably after the election of Pope Julius III (1550-5)]

The fox shall be elected without saying a word,
playing the saint in public, living on barley bread.
Afterwards he shall all at once become a tyrant
putting his foot on the throats of the greatest lords.

VIII.42

[source unidentified]

Through avarice, through force and violence
the chief of Orléans shall upset his followers.
Near St. Mémert, assault and resistance.
Dead in his tent, they shall say he is asleep inside.

VIII.43

[after the two miscarriages of Anne de Bretagne, which permitted Louis of Orléans to succeed his uncle Charles VIII as king]

Through the death of two bastard creatures
the nephew of the Blood shall occupy the throne.
Within Lectoure there shall be spear-strikes.
The nephew out of fear shall fold up his banner.

VIII.44

[source unidentified]

The natural offspring of Ogmion [Henri II?]
(from seven to nine) shall divert a long way from its route
the [military] array. The friend of the half man
must in Navarre flatten the fort at Pau.

VIII.45

[after the capture of Calais from the English by the Duke of Guise in January 1558]

His hand in a sling and his leg bandaged
the younger son of Calais long bear.
At a word from the watch, the death shall be delayed.
Then in church at Easter he shall bleed.

VIII.46

[after current military conflicts between France and the Holy Roman Empire, with the imagery presumably based on the Latin Epigrams of Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523)]

At St-Paul-de Mausole he shall die, three leagues from the Rhône,
the two having fled [to] near the Strait of Tarascon.
For Mars shall take up the most horrible rulership
over Cock and Eagle, France and the three [Coligny] brothers.

VIII.47

[after Francesco Matarazzo’s Chronicles of the City of Perugia 1492 - 1503, recounting how, after the murder of a German student in 1487, violent clan wars broke out in Perugia between the Baglioni and the Oddi (see II.42)]

Lake Trasimene shall bear witness
to the conspirators trapped inside Perugia.
A despot shall play the sage,
killing a German, destroying and cutting him to pieces.

VIII.48

[after Froissart’s account in his Chroniques of the military campaign of Edward the Black Prince to restore Don Pedro the Cruel of Castile to his throne in 1367]

Saturn in Cancer, Jupiter with Mars,
in early February, at Salvatierra,
the passes of Castile [shall be] stormed on three sides.
Near Briviesca, conflict and deadly war.

VIII.49

[after unidentified events of 1499]

[With] Saturn in Taurus, Jupiter in Aquarius, Mars in Sagittarius,
the sixth of February shall bring death.
Those of Catalonia [shall make] so great a breach at Bruges
that the Barbarian chief shall die at Ponterosso [or: on the Red Sea?].

VIII.50

[after the plague epidemic that struck Spain in 1557, with a back reference to the famine that struck Sagunto when besieged by the Carthaginians in 219 BC]

The plague around Capellades
[like] another famine of Sagunto is at hand:
the knightly bastard of the good old man
shall cause the head of the Lord of Tunis to be cut off .

VIII.51

[source unidentified]

The Byzantine [Turk], making an oblation
after taking [back] Cordoba for himself,
after his long journey, peacefully to tend his vines,
while crossing the sea [shall be] taken prisoner by the Column [of Hercules].

VIII.52

[source unidentified]

The king of Blois in Avignon shall reign:
from Amboise a swarm shall come along the Indre.
A claw at Poitiers shall ruin his holy wings:
before Bonny... [incomplete line: should rhyme with Indre, as craindre or éteindre]

VIII.53

[after an unidentified senior Cardinal]

Within Boulogne he shall wish to wash away his faults,
[since] he shall be unable to at the temple [church] of the Sun [Christianity, and thus probably the Vatican].
He shall aspire so high, doing such haughty things:
in the hierarchy there was never anybody like him.

VIII.54

[after the September truce following the French defeat at St-Quentin of August 1557, as finalised in the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis of 1559]

Under the cover of the marriage treaty,
a magnanimous act [shall be performed] by lunar Chyren [Henri II]:
St-Quentin and Arras [shall be] recovered in the process,
the Spaniards having committed a second piece of butchery.

VIII.55

[source unidentified]

Between two rivers he shall find himself shut in:
casks and barrels [shall be] joined [to form a pontoon bridge] to cross beyond.
Eight bridges broken, the chief being run through,
noble children’s throats [shall be] cut with a knife.

VIII.56

[after an unidentified battle, possibly in the course of Edward the Black Prince’s Spanish campaign of 1367]

The weak band shall occupy the hill:
those at the top shall let out horrible yells.
This shall unsettle the large troop on the right flank:
on a tomb near the Ebro inscriptions shall be discovered.

VIII.57

[after the rise to power of Gaspard de Coligny from simple soldier first to Colonel General of the infantry and then, in 1552, to ‘Admiral of France’, subsequently becoming a Huguenot and in 1557 leader of the French Protestants]

From simple soldier he shall attain to power:
from the short robe he shall attain to the long.
Valiant in arms, at his worst towards the Church,
he shall vex [drain] the priests as a sponge does water.

VIII.58

[after the 13th century Récits d’un ménestrel de Reims, telling how the French minstrel Blondel de Nesle allegedly discovered and brought about the release of his friend King Richard I of England from his cell in one of a string of European castles by singing aloud the first verse of a French ballad that the two of them had composed together]

A kingdom divided between two disputing brothers
shall take the arms [shield] and the name of Britain:
he who is called English shall be recognized [only] tardily,
surprised by night, led by the French tune.

VIII.59

[after the Mirabilis Liber of 1522/3]

Twice raised up, twice cast down,
the East shall also weaken the West.
Its adversary, after many battles
pursued by sea, shall of necessity collapse.

VIII.60

[after the brilliant counter-attack by François Duke of Guise, just back from campaigning in Italy, against the forces of Charles V, following the military disaster of St-Quentin of 1557]

The first in France, the first in the Holy Roman Empire,
by land and sea against the English and their partners.
Marvellous things [shall be achieved] by that great troop.
The violent monster [Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy?] shall lose Lorraine.

VIII.61

[source unidentified, but with the imagery presumably based on the Latin Epigrams of Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523)]

Never by light of day
shall he attain to the insignia of the sceptre bearer
until all his sees are occupied,
bringing to the Cock the gift of the armed legion.

VIII.62

[after the Great Western Church Schism of 1378 to 1417, when, under pressure from the local Roman mob who sacked the Vatican, the chosen Pope (the mentally ill Pope Urban VI) was discarded by the cardinals in favour of Pope Clement VII, who moved to Avignon]

When the holy Church shall be seen plundered,
the greatest [Pope] by the Rhône, their sacred rites profaned,
through them such a widespread pestilence [religious infection?] shall occur:
the fleeing king [Pope?] shall not condemn the unjust one.

VIII.63

[source unidentified]

When the adulterer, wounded without a blow, shall have
murdered his wife and son out of spite,
his wife once killed, he shall strangle the child:
eight captives, once taken, shall smother each other mercilessly.

VIII.64

[source unidentified]

Into the islands the children [shall be] transported:
two of the seven shall be in despair:
those of [native to] the country shall be supported by it.
Montpellier [once] captured, any hope of the Leagues shall disappear.

VIII.65

[after the story of the Dutch Pope Adrian VI, a former Grand Inquisitor, who reigned from 9 January 1522 (when he was 63) until 14 September 1523]

The old man, frustrated of his princely hopes,
shall [nevertheless] attain to supremacy over his empire.
For twenty months he shall hold power with great force,
a cruel tyrant, forsaking [his role as] a worse one.

VIII.66

[after an unidentified peace of contemporary archaeology, possibly at Arles or Glanum]

When the inscription D.M. [shall be] found
and the ancient vault revealed by a lamp,
law [then] King and Ulpian Prince it shall prove to be,
the Queen and Duke under the cover of a flag.

VIII.67

[after the contrast between contemporary religious conditions in France and the Holy Roman Empire]

[In] Paris, Carcassone, France, ruinous great discord:
neither one [sect] nor the other shall gain approval.
[Yet] France [itself] shall have the people’s love and good will,
Ferara, Colonna great protection.

VIII.68

[after the quarrel between Cardinal Jean du Bellay and Cardinal François de Tournon over the latter’s appointment as French chargé d’affaires in Italy in 1554, with a reference to Craponne’s canal in Provence]

The old Cardinal [shall be] deceived by the young one:
out of his post, he shall find himself disarmed
unless two miracles should appear at Arles –
both the aqueduct and the perfumed Prince.

VIII.69

[after Villehardouin’s account in his Conquest of Constantinople (14) of the deposition and death of the Emperor Isaac II Angelus of Constantinople (actually referred to by name) and the savage murder of one of his sons (Alexius IV) in 1204 (see I.35)]

Beside the young one the old Angelus shall decline,
but shall rise above him in the end:
in ten straight years he shall bring down the old one again.
Out of three twos [leaders], the one shall bring down the eighth.

VIII.70

[after the Mirabilis Liber’s prophecies of the future Antichrist]

He shall come in, villainous, mischievous, infamous,
lording it over Mesopotamia [Iraq].
All [shall be] made friends with the adulterous lady [the Whore of Babylon],
a monster terrible and black of face.

VIII.71

[after an unidentified and almost certainly unhistorical ban on astrologers]

The number of astronomers shall grow so great,
[that they shall be] driven out, banned and their books censored
in the year 1607 by sacred councils,
so that none shall be welcome at the sacred rites.

VIII.72

[after the battle of Ravenna on Easter Day 1512, and the death of Gaston de Foix, commander of the victorious French army, partly based on the Latin poem of Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523) on the same subject]

O what an enormous defeat on the Perugian battlefield
and the conflict quite close to Ravenna
in the course of the ritual when the feast-day is being celebrated!
The victor having been vanquished, [it is] his horse [that] shall eat the barley.

VIII.73

[source unidentified]

A Barbarian [Arab] soldier shall strike the King
unjustly: [he shall be] not far from death.
An ambitious mother shall be the cause of the deed,
the conspirator and kingdom in great remorse.

VIII.74

[apparently after the actions of Philip II of Spain in the Netherlands]

A king having penetrated well into the [his] new territory
while his subjects are bidding him welcome,
his treachery shall have reached such heights
that to the citizens it shall be thought worthy of celebrating and remembering.

VIII.75

[source unidentified]

The father and son shall be murdered together,
the Count being within his tent.
The mother at Tours [who] shall have her belly swollen with a son
shall be hidden under green leaves and pieces of paper.

VIII.76

[after the story of King John of England]

More a butcher than a king in England,
born in an obscure place, he shall gain power through force.
A coward, he shall bleed the land without faith, without law;
his time is so nigh that I sigh.

VIII.77

[possibly after the Mirabilis Liber, assimilated to the contemporary Wars of Religion presided over by John Calvin]

The antichrist, (the) three having very soon been annihilated,
twenty-seven years his war shall last.
The heretics [shall be] dead, captive, exiled:
blood [from] human bodies, reddened water shall splatter the earth.

VIII.78

[after the alleged role of Chancellor Michel de l’Hospital in encouraging the Wars of Religion by being too soft with the Protestants]

A glib-talker with a twisted tongue
shall [destroy] the sanctuary of the gods.
To the heretics he shall fling wide the door
so stirring up the Church to war.

VIII.79

[source unidentified]

He who shall lose his father by the sword, born in a Nunnery,
sure of the Gorgon, there shall the blood be conceived anew:
in a foreign land he shall do everything to be silent,
who shall burn both himself and his child.

VIII.80

[possibly after the Mirabilis Liber of 1522/3]

The blood of innocents, widow[s] and virgin[s],
so many evils [shall be] committed through the Red Lord,
the sacred images plunged in burning candle-wax.
Through terror and fear, none shall be seen to move [abroad].

VIII.81

[a prophecy for Philip II of Spain and his uncle, the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand]

The new empire, desolated,
shall be changed [for the worse] by the northern hemisphere.
From Sicily an upheaval shall
upset the enterprise tributary to Philip.

VIII.82

[source unidentified]

Emaciated, tall and dry, playing the good servant,
in the end he shall have nothing but his dismissal:
sharp poison and letters about his neck,
he shall be captured escaping while in danger.

VIII.83

[after Villehardouin’s account of the Fourth Crusade in his Conquest of Constantinople of 1209-13]

The biggest sailing fleet [that ever set] out from the port of Zara,
near Byzantium shall conduct its enterprise
of inflicting losses on the enemy, but a friend shall not be:
the third shall inflict on both great pillage and capture.

VIII.84

[after the Mirabilis Liber of 1522/3]

Paterno shall hear the clamour from Sicily:
all the preparations in the Gulf of Trieste
[which] shall be heard as far as Sicily.
Of so many sails flee, flee, the horrible pestilence!

VIII.85

[after Froissart’s account in his Chronicles of the murder of Don Pedro the Cruel by Henry the Bastard of Castille on a couch at the castle of Montiel, after Pedro had called him ‘the son of a whore’]

Between Bayonne and St-Jean-de-Luz
the advance of Mars [war] shall be made.
From the Northern allies [the ailing Edward the Black Prince] the ‘whore’ shall remove the light,
then [he shall be] suffocated in bed far from assistance.

VIII.86

[source unidentified]

Via Ernani, Tolosa and Villafranca
a numberless band [shall move] across the Sierra San Adrian,
[stage an] opposed crossing of the river by a wooden bridge,
and enter Bayonne, all crying ‘Bigorre’!

VIII.87

[after the capture, trial and death of the head of the Templars elected in 1295, who was forced in 1307 to sail from Cyprus to France to justify himself before the Pope]

The plotted death shall come into full effect,
the charge laid and the voyage of death.
Elected, created, accepted by his followers, defeated:
the blood of innocence [shall be] remorseful before the Faith.

VIII.88

[after the invasion of Sardinia by the King of Aragon between 1323 and 1326]

Into Sardinia a noble king shall come
who for only three years shall hold the kingdom:
many factions shall join with him
after his matrimonial slumber.

VIII.89

[source unidentified]

Lest he fall into the hands of his uncle,
who slaughtered his children in order to reign,
praying to the people, putting his foot on Pelion [aping the Giants’ fall?],
he shall die and be dragged between armoured horses.

VIII.90

[after the Mirabilis Liber’s prophecy of the Blessed Vincent]

When one of the Crusaders is found with his mind disturbed,
in the holy sanctuary seeing a horned bull,
[and] for the virgin a pig taking over her place,
[then] order shall no longer be maintained by the king.

VIII.91

[apparently after the Seventh Crusade of 1248, for which King Louis IX built the fortified port of Aigues-Mortes on the Rhône delta]

When they have arrived among the fields of the Rhône-dwellers
where the Crusaders shall be nearly assembled,
the two burning planets [Mars and the Sun] shall be in conjunction in Pisces
and a great number [shall be] scourged by a flood.

VIII.92

[apparently after the same Crusade as in the previous verse]

Far distant from the kingdom, sent on a dangerous journey,
he shall lead a great host and commit them to the Faith:
the king shall hold his captive followers hostage.
On his return he shall plunder the whole country.

VIII.93

[source unidentified]

Seven months, no more, he shall hold the prelature:
through his decease a great schism shall arise.
[In] Seven months another shall hold the priesthood,
[and] near Venice peace and concord shall be reborn.

VIII.94

[source unidentified]

Before the lake into which his dearest one was thrown
of seven months, and his army routed,
the Spaniards shall be laid waste by Alba’s men,
losing through putting off giving battle.

VIII.95

[source unidentified]

The seducer shall be thrown in the pit
and staked out for some time.
The cleric shall join the lord with his crozier:
by effectively laying about him he shall attract supporters.

VIII.96

[after the contemporary emigration of persecuted Jews from Spain and Italy to the more tolerant Ottoman dispensation in Turkey, assimilated to the Mirabilis Liber of 1522/3]

The sterile synagogue without any fruit
shall be accepted among the infidels,
[until] the daughter of Babylon, with her
wretched and sad persecution, shall clip its wings.

VIII.97

[source unidentified]

On the borders of the Var the supreme ruler shall change:
near the shore shall the three beautiful children be born.
Ruin to the people when they are of age!
The country’s government shall change, then be seen to grow further.

VIII.98

[after the Mirabilis Liber of 1522/3]

Of churchmen the blood shall be shed
as abundantly as water,
and for a long time it shall not be staunched.
Woe, woe, to the clergy! Ruin and grief.

VIII.99

[after the shift of the papacy to Avignon during the Great Western Church Schism of 1378-1417]

By the power of the three kings temporal
to another place shall the Holy See be moved,
where the substance of the incarnated spirit
shall be restored, and accepted as the true See.

VIII.100

[after the developing Wars of Religion]

Through the great number of tears shed [arms spread],
from top to bottom and from bottom to the topmost,
because of too much faith in God, life shall be lost.
They shall die of thirst through their many failings.

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