A leading expert on Michel de Nostradame claims the sixteenth-century astrologer once predicted that King Charles III would abdicate for a mystery monarch.
Mario Reading’s book from 2006 reinterprets the supposedly prophetic readings from almost 450 years ago for the 21st Century, with one passage having potential relevance to today's Royal Family.
Using a 1555 Nostradamus poem that said "a man who never expected to become king" would take the throne, the late author and scholar of medieval French history suggested it may be Prince Harry who one day takes the crown instead of his brother.
It comes as a potential warning sign just nine days before the King's Coronation, as Harry's attendance remains shrouded in controversy - despite him agreeing to come to the ceremony on May 6.
In 'Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies for the Future', Mr Reading suggested lingering public upset over Charles's divorce from Princess Diana would imperil his future reign.
Eerily, he even correctly predicted the year of Queen Elizabeth II's death before suggesting there would be problems for the new King, saying:"The preamble is that Queen Elizabeth II will die, circa 2022, at the age of around 96, five years short of her mother’s term of life.”
"Prince Charles will be 74 years old in 2022, when he takes over the throne, but the resentments held against him by a certain proportion of the British population, following his divorce from Diana, Princess of Wales, still persist."
While the author at first interpreted this as saying the crown would skip Charles and go straight to next-in-line William, he changed this a year later in a revised version of the book.
Looking again at the line about a man who never expected to be king, he pondered: “Does that mean that Prince William, who would have expected to succeed his father, is no longer in the picture?”
The author said that this could, for mysterious reasons not yet clear to him, mean the current Duke of Sussex takes his place, asking whether "Prince Harry, by process of default, becomes king in his stead? That would make him King Henry IX, aged just 38."
Prince Harry was officially christened Henry Charles Albert David, though is known by his more familiar name to his family, friends and the public.
Mario Reading's book experienced a boom in sales following Queen Elizabeth's death in 2022 and returned to the top of the paperback chart in the weeks afterward.
