Story Highlights
- Historical event:
- 30 June 1559
- Nostradamus correctly predicted the death of the French King Henry II in a jousting tournament. He accurately predicted that a rival’s lance will go through the king’s helmet and stab him in the eye, and that the King will die in terrible pain.
On this day Nostradamus’ prophecy by which he became famous and respected as a seer came true.
He, namely, predicted the death of the French King Henry II with these words:
“The young lion shall overcome the older one,
On the field of combat in single battle,
He shall pierce his eyes in a golden cage,
Two forces one, then he shall die a cruel death.”
Indeed, on this day, King Henry II participated in a tournament in Paris. He rode with an armor and a lance against a young courtier Gabriel, comte de Montgomery.
The young man’s lance stabbed the king in his eye through the helmet (“…pierce his eyes in a golden cage…”) and the king died 10 days later suffering terrible pain, precisely according to the prophecy.
The King’s widow, Catherine de ‘Medici, appreciated Nostradamus and hired him as a court astrologer to make horoscopes for her sons. In a twist of fate, her three sons, one after the other, became kings of France, but not one had descendants.
Let us just note that the above prophecy is one of very few Nostradamus’ prophecies that were fulfilled, so in this case he got lucky.
