EMSP Facts
The early modern period housed far more than just the origins of modernity: it also provided us with the important invention of Guinness stout ale, the founding of our beloved King's College, and a whole slew of juicy murders and romances.
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The University of King’s College was founded in the early modern period, in 1789. The College is named after George III, King of Great Britain (1760-1820). George III is noted for his bouts of madness (and thus blue dung), as well as losing the American colonies. |
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Monty Python’s Flying Circus TV show sketches with significant early modern content: The Battle of Trafalgar, Beethoven’s Mynah Bird, The Black Eagle, Bruces, Colin Mozart (ratcatcher), Court Scene (Cardinal Richelieu), The Death of Mary Queen of Scots, 18th Century Social Legislation, Elizabeth I, George III, Hamlet and Ophelia, “It’s Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,” “Julius Caesar” on an Aldis Lamp, Louis XIV, The Montgolfier Brothers, Dennis Moore, Shakespeare, the Spanish Inquisition. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. |
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Blackadder II is set during the Tudor period in 16th century England; Blackadder the Third takes place during the reign of George III in the late 18th-early 19th centuries; “Blackadder: the Cavalier Years” is set during the English Civil War in the mid-17th century. |
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Tupac Shakur called himself “Makaveli” in 1996, in honour of Niccolò Machiavelli. |
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1759 was a notable year for many reasons: the Battle on the Plains of Abraham; the publication of Voltaire’s Candide, Johnson’s Rasselas, and Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments; and best of all, the invention of Guinness stout ale. Boddington’s, the second greatest ale in the history of humankind, was also invented in the 18th century, in 1778. It is now brewed in Luton. |
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Italian scientists in 2008 discovered high levels of arsenic in the corpse of Pico della Mirandola. Poisoning by a member of the Medici family is suspected. |
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Disreputable scholars have argued that Shakespeare’s works were penned by Sir Francis Bacon. More reliable is the SCTV sketch about the two authors, “The Adventures of Shake’n Bake.” |
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The arguably best-loved folktale in East Asia, the story of the Monkey-King, was a 16th century Chinese novel entitled “Journey to the West." |
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Descartes may have died of pneumonia, in part due to the winter cold in Sweden. Canadian philosophers take heed. |
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Hobbes sung prick-song to himself every night. This behaviour may have contributed to his longevity (90 years of age at his death). |
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Spinoza was a professional lens-grinder, but did not provide a “one-hour guarantee.” |
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Leibniz claimed that he only re-discovered the binary system of mathematics, which was discovered by the founder of China and is represented by the 64 hexagrams of the I-Ching. Leibniz read the hexagrams upside-down, unfortunately. |
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The 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, Locke’s patron, was the grandfather of the philosopher Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury. They were ancestors of the 11th Earl of Shaftesbury, who was murdered in 2005 by his 3rd wife, a former nightclub hostess. |
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Frederick the Great was sexually attracted to Voltaire, who preferred the embraces of his niece. |
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Towards the end of his life, David Hume hated the English and preferred the company of the French, whose language he spoke with a strong Scottish burr. |
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau fell in love with Julie, a fictional character of his own creation. |
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In the 2006 mystery novel by Michael Grigorio, The Critique of Criminal Reason, a demented Kant is revealed as a serial killer. |
