NOSTRADAMUS - HENRI II OF FRANCE AND CATHERINA DEI MEDICI Nineteenth-century Mezzotint engraving of the Portrait of Henri II and his wife, Catherine de' Medici. The original is in the Pitti Palace. Nostradamus famously prophecied the death of Henri in a duel: two or three years earlier, Nostradamus had dedicated to Henri his famous collection of Prophecies. Catherine was an ardent fan of Nostradamus, and commissioned him to cast the horoscopes of her children - the future rulers of France. During her progress through France, she called on Nostradamus at Salon, in Provence. He set out the bleak destinies of Catherine, and of her brood, in his collection of prophecies.