The Life and Prophecies of Nostradamus

Nostradamus's names and predictions are famous, centuries after his death. But the man behind the predictions is still largely unknown. Was he a true believer, or a savvy opportunist?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky Listener Discretion advised France fifteen
sixty four, and the country is to be perfectly honest
A bit of a mess. Fourteen year old King Charles

(00:21):
the Ninth has just formally ended his regency, but the
young monarch has no real interest in governing. After all,
he is just fourteen years old. His ineptitude means the
former regent, his mother, Catherine de Medici, continues to be
the dominant power in French politics. Before the regency's official dissolution,

(00:46):
Catherine managed to address the country's increasingly violent religious conflict
by brokering the Edict of Imboise, which ended the first
stage of the French Wars of Religion and brought on
a brief period of official peace between the Hugonots or
French Protestants and Catholics. In an effort to enforce the

(01:11):
edict and to rally support for the crown in the
wake of the unrest, Catherine and Little Charles set out
in March of fifteen sixty four for a two year
Grand Tour of France. The tour took the pair and
their roughly twenty thousand person entourage across the country, from

(01:33):
Paris to Provence, Brittany to the Bourbonet. Each stop on
the tour was carefully planned to strengthen loyalty in the provinces,
but there is one stop designated for the King and
Queen Mother's personal agenda. In October, the tour reached the
quiet southern town of Celan de Provence, home of the

(01:57):
famed physician and occultist no Stradamus. That iconic name is
likely known by a majority of modern listeners, but even
at the time of the royal visit, no Stradamis's infamy
had already spread throughout the country and beyond its orders.
In fact, the validity of his predictions had become another

(02:22):
point of contention in the religious conflict. Protestants were arguing
he was a fraud. Catholics believed he had a divine gift. Catherine,
a devout Catholic, came to sell on seeking a message
from the stars delivered through no Stradamis. Later, writing to

(02:44):
the Constable of France, Catherine happily recounted that the astrologer
quote promised all kinds of good things to the King
my son, and that he shall live as long as you.
That prediction would come true, but not in the world
way Catherine brightly anticipated. Today, more than four centuries after

(03:06):
no Stradamus's death, his prophecies continue to be a subject
of discussion. Have they predicted major world events or are
they simply vague enough to be easily applicable to any
number of situations. But there's one more question, perhaps most
interesting of all, were his prophecies even original. For all

(03:31):
of this debate, the man behind the predictions remains to
many a mystery. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood.
The famous future astrologer was not born Nostradamus the Great
and Powerful or Old Nasty if you've been listening to

(03:54):
the Rain Recap series over on the Noble Blood Patreon. Instead,
his parents called him Michelle de Nostre Dame when he
was born in fifteen o three in sin Remi de Provence.
Michelle was only the second generation to be born with
the last name Nostr Dame. His paternal grandfather had been

(04:16):
a Spanish Jew forced to convert and take a Christian
name around fourteen fifty five due to hostile New edicts,
so his grandfather, Gui Gassonet became Pierre de Saint Marie
before settling on Pierre de Nostradame. The surname meaning our

(04:37):
lady Michelle Nostre Dame's Jewish heritage will come up later
in debates surrounding his legitimacy, so remember that point. It's
traditionally believed that Michelle started his education young, taught by
his maternal great grandfather, who was a physician. Those early
studies are said to have focused on Latin and yes

(04:59):
some astrology, which at the time was a respected scholarly
tradition with a long history, although the Renaissance period saw
increasing skepticism of astrology and those who practiced it. Later
in life, Nostredam would claim to still treasure the astrolabe
he inherited from his great grandfather. Sometime between the ages

(05:23):
of fourteen and sixteen, Michelle left for the nearest major city, Avignon,
where he sought higher education at the local university. In
Nostradamus's day, university curriculum consisted of the trivium, which was grammar,
rhetoric and logic, followed by the quadrivium geometry, arithmetic, music,

(05:45):
and astrology. However, our young scholar never got the chance
to advance to the quadrivium's astrology lessons because in fifteen
twenty a plague outbreak forced the Universe Diversity to close
its doors covid Era students, I'm sure can relate in

(06:06):
a later diary entry, Nostrodamis reflected on life following the
university closure quote. I spent most of my young years
on pharmaceutics and the knowledge and study of natural remedies
across various lands and countries, constantly on the move to
find out the source and origin of plants involved in

(06:30):
the purposes of the healing art. That is a long
sentence to say he became a self taught traveling apothecary.
Perhaps he was inspired by his close encounter with the plague,
or maybe he was following in his great grandfather's footsteps.

(06:50):
By fifteen twenty nine, schools had reopened their doors. We
know this because fifteen twenty nine was the year Michelle
enrolled in the University at Montpellier to study for his
medical doctorate. His written enrollment confirmation pen in shaky Latin,
remains in the university's library to this day. Though this

(07:15):
may be a point of pride for that university. Now,
the reception no Stradamis received at the time was quite different.
In fact, he was expelled shortly after arriving. The confirmation
of his expulsion also still exists in library records, reading quote,

(07:36):
he whom you see crossed out here has been an
apothecary or quack, and through the students we have heard
him speak ill of doctors end quote. This was the first,
but certainly not the last, time no Stradamus would be
called a quack. While being an apothecary was deemed inferior

(07:58):
to being a doctor, it was also forbidden for university
students to have practiced a quote manual trade. Academic snobbery
and no Stradamis's over confidence were a bad mix. So
no Stradamus returned to the life of a traveling apothecary

(08:18):
for the next few years, following Hippocratus's famous advice to
quote seek out old wives or alternative remedies. In fifteen
thirty one he settled into a stationary life in Agen,
where he was invited to be the personal apothecary of
a famed scholar he had befriended. There, he married his

(08:41):
first wife, Henriette, with whom he had two children. His
time there, as his time had been in Avian and Montpellier,
was once again destined to be brief. By fifteen thirty four,
Michell nostdam faced the triple loss of his wife, son,
and daughter, all to another plague outbreak. The mortality rate

(09:07):
of the sixteenth century plague epidemics was still lower than
that of the Black Death in the fourteenth century, but
the effects were still devastating. Known treatments were ineffective, and
a famous piece of advice at the time for doctors
was quote get out fast, stay well away, come back late.

(09:30):
I don't remember that part of the Hippocratic oath, but
I am no doctor. If you can't find a doctor,
you might as well turn to a less respected professional.
After two years spent as the aid to a prominent physician,
a Montpellier alum no less in Marseille, Nostrodamus's service were

(09:51):
procured by the city of x in Provence. Our apothecary
was likely motivated to aid where others fled for an
number of reasons. A chance at renown, certainly, but also
the chance for medical discovery almost certainly. The chance to
fight the same disease that took his family away. It

(10:14):
was there that he treated residence with his would be
famous rose pill. I wouldn't recommend trying this at home,
but if you're curious as to how a rose pill
is made, you can turn to Nostrodamis's fifteen fifty five
best selling medical cookbook Wellness Influencers, pumping out a book

(10:35):
tail as all as Time. The rose pill formula calls
for quote one ounce of the sawdust shavings of cypress
wood as green as you can find, six ounces of
florentine iris, three ounces of cloves, three DRAMs of sweet calamus,
and six DRAMs of aloes wood. Next, take three or

(10:58):
four hundred years unfolded red roses, fresh and perfectly clean,
and gathered before dewfall. From there, the concoction is to
be shaped into a lozenge and left to dry. But
as a bonus, he notes that the mixture may also
be made into a perfume. Quote add as much musk

(11:20):
or ambergrease as you either can or wish. If these
two are added, I do not doubt that you will
produce a superbly pleasant perfume. This same cookbook part of
a rapidly growing genre of recipe books, often called books
of secrets, marketed to DIY minded readers, many of them women.

(11:42):
Also includes formulas for teeth whitening, hair coloring, and a
love tonic so powerful that Nostrodamis claimed a few drops
placed in a woman's mouth while kissing her would trigger
a burning passion. When described how big the rose pill,
no Stradamis dedicates time to recounting the horrors he witnessed

(12:05):
in X, as the plague tore apart, families and graveyards overflowed,
but he notes that his concoction provided relief, protecting its
users from infection. We can't say for certain or with
any likelihood, that the pill was an actually effective preventative measure,

(12:26):
but as in many cases, what mattered was that people
believed in it. That rose pill was the catalyst that
set no Stradamis on the path to fame, and he
soon became known as the plague Doctor. In reality, it
appears that the X plague naturally subsided after around nine months,

(12:48):
which was a typical timeline. While his prowess may have
been exaggerated, no Stradamis rightfully deserves credit where it's due,
for staying where many doctors fled, and for trying what
hadn't been tried. He continued to help a number of
other cities over the next few years before settling in

(13:09):
the town that he would call home for the rest
of his life, Celon. By this point he was in
his early forties, and alongside his new success, it appears
he sought another chance at a stable family life. On
November eleventh, fifteen forty seven, he married his second wife,

(13:31):
a wealthy widow named Anne Ponzard. It was in the
years following his second marriage that Nostrodamus became interested in
the occult. He hadn't formally studied astrologies since childhood, but
the field was becoming increasingly more popular as well as
more controversial. His major influences included fifteen fifty's book on

(13:55):
the Nature of the Times and Their Changes, which used
planetariyr patterns to define the world by cycles, the last
of which would conclude with a predicted and notably inaccurate apocalypse,
as well as the rising success of annual almanacs, which
provided predictions and warnings for the year ahead. Though they

(14:19):
were first introduced about a century earlier, almanacs were now
so popular that two to three dozen were being published
every year. With the country's increasing religious tensions, as well
as economic and political strife, it was no wonder that
people sought guides to the future. Nostradamus wrote his first

(14:42):
almanac in fifteen fifty, and would continue to write one
every year until his death. It was in his first
almanac that we see the pen name Michele Nostre Dame
mus as opposed to Nostradame. In trading his French surname
for or a Latin one, he aligned himself with the

(15:02):
great thinkers of antiquity, a practice adopted by many scholars
of the Renaissance. No copies of his first publication have survived,
but the predictions it contained were recorded by his secretary.
One reads, throughout Gaul, meaning France, there shall be certain

(15:23):
uprisings which shall be appeased by stern Council, fairly vague,
but pretty predictably likely. Another report quote in the autumn
heavy rains, which shall be the cause of many setbacks,
shall even confound some very great enterprises. The third prediction claims,

(15:45):
at this time, whether in wars or in illness, love, honor,
and fear shall be the reason why people shall not
be oppressed but shall live in peace. Those are all
decidedly short, vague, and reliable rain in autumn groundbreaking, But

(16:07):
as the years progressed, we'll see his predictive style change
predictions will become wordier, heavier, and increasingly grounded in the
movements of the planets. His almanacs sold well, but they
didn't particularly stand out compared to the many other successful almanacs.

(16:29):
His more lucrative source of income was a new practice
horoscope readings for wealthy clients. As opposed to other astrologists. However,
he did not draw up these charts himself, instead asking
the client to provide the material. His apothecary practice also continued,

(16:50):
but you wouldn't be wrong to wonder where the shift
from medicine to occultism came from. After his childhood studies,
Michelle hadn't shown an interest in astrology for his entire
young adult and adult life, but now in middle age,
he was a practicing astrologist with visions of the future.

(17:13):
This transition wasn't something Nostradamis wrote about in his journals,
so we're left to analyze for ourselves. There's the cynical
angle that he saw the field becoming more lucrative and
wanted a piece of the pie. And there's also the
more optimistic angle that he was an inherently curious person,

(17:36):
constantly seeking new ways to understand the world around him.
I would argue it's probably a mixture of both, and
indeed many scholars of the time saw medicine and astrology
as intertwined. Fifteen fifty five would be the year Nostradamis
began to see real success in his new practice. For

(17:59):
the fifty five almanac, no Stradamis had the idea to
write his predictions in verse, which not only set him
apart from his contemporaries by calling back to the voices
of ancient prophets, but poetic language also helped keep things
open to interpretation. It's also in the fifteen fifty five

(18:20):
edition that no Strodamus first claims to be divinely inspired
quote by divine spirit, soul filled with prophecy, War, famine, plague,
and upheaval shall come by floods droughts, while blood shall
stain both land and sea. Peace packs, prey lets be born,

(18:44):
and princes die. He does not explicitly state his predictions
came from God. That would be a step two controversial
in certain circles, but any reader who wanted to believe
that could certainly sense the true intent behind his words.
Besides religious wars, lightning strikes, and crocodiles, Yes, Nostradamis predicted

(19:08):
an incident involving a mysterious crocodile. One particular prediction stood
out among the others that year the King, he wrote
at the time, still referring to Catherine de Medici's husband, Henry,
the second quote shall beware of some one or many
of his court, lest they seek to do which I

(19:30):
dare not put in writing, as the stars in accordance
with occult philosophy demonstrate. A few years later, the astrologer
Laurent Videl, who ironically taught the subject at Avignon where
Michel was forced to abandon his studies before he reached

(19:51):
the astrology courses, published a scathing indictment of Nostrodamis, in
which he questioned that very prediction quote you say that
you dare not declare what would happen that year? Why
did you resort to such ruses? If not so that
you should be sent for from the court. You knew

(20:13):
perfectly well the king would want the truth. In other words,
you're only being COI, so the king will summon you.
Whether or not Videl was right about Nostradamis's intentions, he
was wrong about one thing. In particular, it was not
the king whose attention he caught, but rather the queen's.

(20:36):
In the summer of fifteen fifty five, Nostradamis received the
Queen's summon to attend court in Paris. According to the
contemporary Chronique Lionnaise, he apparently quote feared greatly that harm
would have been done to him, for he said himself
he was in great danger of having his head cut off.

(20:59):
Evidently it was not his head Nostradamis had to worry about,
but his feet. He was only at court a short
amount of time before he was bedridden with a bad
flare up of gout. As later reported by his son Caesar,
Nostradamis actually read the charts of Eager Nobles right there

(21:19):
from his bed. In a letter, Nostradamis wrote, as a
fine reward from the court, I became ill there. The
Queen paid me thirty crowns and there's a fine sum
for having come two hundred leagues, having spent a hundred crowns,
I made thirty. This may seem an oddly irreverent tone

(21:41):
from a man who was highly respected by the Queen,
but that letter was written to a man to whom
Nostradamis owed money, and so he sought to downplay his wealth.
He does, however, make sure to tell the man how
much he sung his praises to Catherine. According to a
later account from Nostradamis's son, the seer's duty on that

(22:05):
first trip was to examine the birth charts of the
three princes who would become Francis the second, Charles the ninth,
and Henry the third. The Queen was evidently pleased, and
Nostradamis's son later reported that his father returned to Ceylon
a hero, haralded by the people, as quote the most

(22:27):
famous prophet in all of France. The next project for
this most esteemed Frenchman was his magnum opus, The Prophecies,
released in three volumes from fifteen fifty seven to fifteen
fifty eight. Rather than predicting a single year's events, as

(22:47):
was the task of his almanacs, he would predict thousands
of year's events. He was certainly not the first to
attempt such an undertaking, but he would be the first
to time to do so in French, the language of
the people. It was such a major project, in fact,
that upon publication it included a dedicatory letter to King Henry.

(23:12):
The second. Published treatises during this time were frequently dedicated
to existing or potential patrons. By addressing his work to Henry,
Nostradamis communicated his lofty ambitions to both the king and
to his readers. He was making the inaccessible ancient art

(23:35):
of prophecy accessible, and I mean that in a more
literal sense as well. He was essentially translating the existing
work of the ancients into French. As described by Peter
Lemosier in his biography The Unknown Nostradamus, Michelle's writing directly
reflected the major events and developments first told by ancient

(24:00):
prophets and later reproduced in fifteen twenty two's Mirabilis Lieber,
which was a popular collection of predictions from numerous Christian
saints and diviners in Latin. Of course, in his book's preface,
no Stradamis writes that his prophecies concerned future events quote

(24:21):
about which the divine Being has granted me knowledge by
means of astrological cycles. He contradicts himself in the same preface, however,
writing quote, even though my son I have used the
word prophet, I have no wish to attribute myself a
title of such lofty sublimity. At present here, at present

(24:44):
means in the present work. In his biographer's words, the
material was quote certainly not Nostradamus's copyright. Only in the
matter of detail of the who and where and when
was his own hand and evident. Even then, his predictions
relied on the expectation that history would repeat itself. For example,

(25:08):
he wrote numerous times that Europe would be invaded from
the east and south by massive Muslim forces. There are
passages fully plagiarized from historical sources, including Livy, Plutarch, and
other classics. This all sounds rather scandalous to our modern ears.
Revealed no stra Damis plagiarized his predictions, but this was

(25:33):
actually a very common practice at the time, seen more
as paying homage to the great than infringing on their
intellectual property. In one quatrain that would become particularly famous,
Nostradamis mirrors the deposition of the Byzantine emperor Isaac the
sec Angelus. It reads in Nostradamus's standard verse style quote,

(25:59):
the young young lion shall surmount the old on Marshall
battlefield in a single duel. His eyes he'll put out
in a cage of gold. Two forces joined, and then
a death most cruel. Nostrodamus was right that history would
repeat itself, but in a way no one could have expected.

(26:22):
In fifteen fifty nine, a tournament was held honoring the
marriage of Henry the Second and Catherine's daughter Elizabeth to
King Philip the Second of Spain. King Henry was an
avid jouster and decided to participate in a festive triple
joust with his captain of the Scottish Guard, Gabriel of Montgomery.

(26:45):
In the third round, Gabriel's lance splintered and pierced Henry's
eye so severely it penetrated his brain. Despite their best efforts,
the royal doctors found there was nothing to be done
when the king died ten days later. There are some

(27:05):
clear parallels to Nostradamus's verse. For example, both jousters had
lions as their emblems. While Marshall Battlefield isn't exactly the
same as a celebratory joust, Henry did lose his eye,
wearing a gilded helmet and suffering an agony for ten

(27:25):
days before finally succumbing to brain damage. I would certainly
qualify that as a death most cruel At the time, however,
those parallels were not drawn. Instead, some people wondered why
Nostradamis failed to predict anything about the death of a king.
In the letter at the beginning of his book addressed

(27:47):
to Henry, Nostradamis even described the king as quote most invincible.
While Nostradamis had his fair share of denouncers, mainly fellow
astrologists who saw him as a hack, this snaffoo wasn't
enough to hinder his rise. Even in England, diplomats discussed

(28:08):
quatrains referencing the ascension of Queen Elizabeth and the marriage
between Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry's young successor, Francis
Nostradamis Mania officially swept the country. Foreign ambassadors were reporting
back to their home countries that it was becoming difficult

(28:28):
to conduct any business in France. For the country's collective
mind was fixated on one thing. International clients were also
rolling in, including the crown Prince of Vienna and a
prominent Duke of Savoy. Catherine herself became a regular client,

(28:49):
asking for readings for the new King Francis and for
his younger brother, Charles. No Stradamis's fifteen sixty almanac election
ugly predicted the early death of King Francis the Second,
which occurred in December of that year. If you recall
this episode's introduction, the early years of Francis's younger brother,

(29:14):
Charles the Ninth Regency saw the country on the brink
of civil war. In the end of fifteen sixty one,
Nostra Damis wrote to a friend that the troubles had
reached Salon and that he and his family had been
forced to rent a safe house in Avignon, as his

(29:34):
famed mysticism made him suspect in the chaos. Michelle failed
to get the required license from a bishop for the
publication of his fifteen sixty two almanac, and he was
thrown into prison at the castle of Margnen. The Governor
of Provence left his sentencing to Charles the Ninth and

(29:57):
No stra Damis was freed. Thus this began his reputation era.
He always had his detractors, but upon his release from prison,
the movement against him gained more traction than ever. A
famous published critique called him and I will be adding
this phrase to my personal vernacular a twenty four carot liar.

(30:21):
Another pamphlet sought to discredit him on account of his
Jewish origins, while additionally framing him as something of a courtester.
I who was there meaning court at the time, know
perfectly well that there was nobody there who was not
convinced that you had come there expressly in order to
receive by way of reward, all the mockery that all

(30:45):
your poor little treatises and fantastic statements richly deserved. That's
such a good takedown, you know. The guy who wrote
that would have killed on Reddit. But the heart of
this entire revie debate was between Protestants and Catholics. After
Pierre de Ronsard, a Catholic poet with royal patronage, composed

(31:09):
a flattering portrait of Nostradamis, a Protestant pamphlet was published
denouncing Ronsard by appealing directly to Queen Catherine, it read, Ronzard,
you fool, how dare you take to heart this damned
Nostra Damis and his art calling him true and for
a maniac's word betray the revelation of the Lord. As

(31:34):
a brief aside, takedowns being written in verse feels like
the sixteenth century forbearer of rap battles. Catherine, as we know,
paid those detractors no mind, and she soon embarked on
her trip with King Charles to Salon, where we began
this episode. Michelle's son Cesar was only ten at the time,

(31:57):
but he would recount that visit in his later years. Apparently,
Nostradamis asked to examine Charles's younger brother Henry to assess
his future prospects. He pronounced that, according to the placement
of the moles on his body, he would not only
become king, but rule for a long time. When the

(32:20):
young prince did ultimately succeed to the throne, it said,
he would often recall the occasion with amusement. As for
Nostra Damis's other prediction that Charles would live as long
as the Constable of France, that also came true, albeit bleakly.
He died three years later in his seventies, and King

(32:45):
Charles only lived for another seven years, dying at just
twenty three years before Charles's death, however, Nostra Damis was
called upon to bless the proposed union between the new
French king and Queen Elizabeth of England, who was twice

(33:05):
his age. Whether or not no str Damis saw a
bright outcome, it appears he had no choice but to
say he did. The proposal was sent to England with
a copy of Charles's birth chart and no Stradamis's commentary.
Elizabeth delicately refused the proposal and is said to have replied, quote,

(33:27):
my Lord is too great for me, and yet too
small still. No Stra Damis had gained enough acclaim with
Catherine de Medici that he was appointed Privy Councilor and
physician in ordinary to the King and awarded a grant
and pension. The Spanish ambassador, reporting the quote lunacy of

(33:49):
what is going on here to his king, wrote quote,
he has all the guile in the world, and only
ever says what is pleasing to whomever it may be.
The ambassador continues, quote the Queen said to me to
day do you know, noster Damis assured me that in
fifteen sixty six a general peace would reign across the world,

(34:12):
and that the Kingdom of France would be the most peaceful,
and that the situation would settle down, and while saying
that she had an air of earnestness, as if somebody
had been quoting Saint John or Saint Luke at her
end quote. Despite what outsiders thought of him, though noster
Damis had made it to the top, but not long

(34:35):
after arriving, his chronic gout became increasingly more painful. In
a December fifteen sixty five letter to a colleague, he wrote, quote,
at Arl recently a fiery arrow was seen, a kind
of falling star. He believed this meant varied woes were

(34:56):
to plague the land, including invasions, drought, and famine. But
maybe he should have been looking inward. In his final
surviving letter, he wrote an update to Catherine, predicting a
vastly different future than the falling star portold quote, I find,

(35:18):
by various celestial patterns drawn up in this place, that
all shall be in peace, love, union, and concord, even
though there shall be some great contradictions and differences, but
in the end everybody shall return content of mouth and heart.
Perhaps he simply forgot to mention the invasions, drought, and

(35:42):
famine that the falling Star had told him about. But
really a prediction of peace, love and concord is pretty safe,
because if you say that everything will be okay in
the end and things aren't okay yet, it just means
the end hasn't come. No Stradamus completed his final almanac

(36:04):
for fifteen sixty seven only a fortnight before his end
came in the beginning of July fifteen sixty six. He
did not predict his own death, but November fifteen sixty
seven's entry was posthumously edited by his secretary to fit
the circumstances of his passing. That's the life of no Stradamus.

(36:32):
But keep listening after a brief sponsor break, to hear
a bit about how his prophecies have been interpreted in
modern times. There are numerous events in more recent history

(36:53):
that people believe had been predicted by Nostronamus, including the
French Revolution, the death of Princess Diana, and the rise
of Adolf Hitler. The latter is a particularly interesting one,
as Nostradamus became a figure of government propaganda. Astrology was
gaining popularity again in nineteen thirties Europe and publishers were

(37:17):
putting out multiple Nostre Damis books a year. The New
York Times reported that men and women of all social stations,
including officers at the front, were turning to Nostradamis's prophecies
for insight. One of his quatrans stands out quote beasts
wild with hunger shall swim the rivers. Most of the

(37:40):
hosts shall move against ister. He'll have the great one
dragged in iron cage. When the child the German Rhine
surveys Ister spelled Hister in the old French was referring
to another name for the Danube River, but the twentieth
century mind saw a clear reference to the name Hitler.

(38:04):
On the eve of war, France's propaganda agency sought to
publish a favorable interpretation of Nostradamis. Centuries after he was
sought out by Catherine, Nostradamus was once again tasked with
predicting a hopeful future for France. Seeing the effectiveness of

(38:24):
that strategy, the Nazis began to publish their own interpretations
of Nostradamis's quatrains, and Hitler himself was interested in astrology.
That didn't stop the Allies from using him in their propaganda.
In fact, their new plan was to make no Stradamis
a movie star in the US, with MGM producing short

(38:47):
films about the seer. As said by the studio's production supervisor,
the vision was to quote make a given verse say
what you wanted it to say in terms of the times,
and in terms of the interest, and in terms of
the dramatic value of your interpretation. It's something to keep

(39:09):
in mind when you see people making grand predictions on
the Internet, people reading into clues and symbols and signs
that throughout history, vague enough predictions have been used as propaganda,
and we've always been looking to the stars for answers.

(39:38):
Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and
Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me
Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannaswick,
Courtney Sender, Amy hit and Julia Melaney. The show is
edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima

(40:00):
il Kaali and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and
Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.