WEBVTT - Generational 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.400 Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:09.320 iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:16.840 Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.239 is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.720 right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:37.040 Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. It had been a 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:41.440 tumultuous decade in England. For generations, the Stuart monarchs had 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:45.160 reigned over England, claiming a divine right to rule the nation. 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.760 Their authority came straight from God himself and thus should 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:53.600 not be questioned. Parliament at the time had become increasingly Puritan, 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:56.640 and so when King Charles the First married the French 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:00.560 Catholic Henrietta Maria, and his support of an English High 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:05.160 Church was redoubled, they worried about a backslide into Roman Catholicism. 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:09.600 Tensions between the crown and the Parliament grew until sixteen 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:12.880 forty two, when the King tried to arrest five members 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:16.000 of the House of Commons, widely considered an assault on 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:21.080 its constitutional privilege. Negotiations between parties fell apart, and on 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:25.000 August twenty second of sixteen forty two, Charles declared war 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:28.760 on Parliament. The civil war that erupted as a result 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.920 would last for two whole years and exposed the deep 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:35.479 divides in politics and religion that had long been simmering 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:38.840 in England. In the end, the Royalist army was defeated 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:43.479 and Charles was captured by Parliament's forces. In victory, Parliament 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:47.160 faced a massive dilemma, what exactly do we do with 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:50.440 the King? Debate raged on for months before a grim 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:54.680 decision was finally made. On January thirtieth of sixteen forty nine, 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.920 Charles the First was brought to London Bridge, where, in 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:02.160 front of a crowd of his former subjects, London's official executioner, 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.920 Richard Brandon, ended the king's life with an axis blow. 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:10.080 The head was displayed on a spike to deter any 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.480 Royalists from further action. Eventually it made its way to 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:17.079 the Tower of London, where it was placed into storage. 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:19.960 In the coming years, another would rise to take the 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:24.200 mantle of Leader of the Commonwealth. One Oliver Cromwell, a 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:28.200 farmer and a senior officer in the Parliamentarian Army, who 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.680 rose to claim the mantle of Lord Protector in sixteen 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:37.200 fifty three. His Puritan administration championed religious tolerance, although brutally 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.360 cracked down on Royalist descent wherever it reared its head, 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:44.560 and conspiracies to reinstate the royal line were many. The 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.839 beheading at Charles the First cast a long shadow over 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:51.720 the political landscape. Cromwell would rule until his death in 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:54.760 the autumn of sixteen fifty eight, after a stroke left 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:59.080 him incapacitated. With its figure had gone, Parliament was once 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:02.880 again leaning toward Royalist sentiment. Within days of the Lord 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:07.640 Protector's death, a measure was passed Oliver Cromwell's corpse was 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:12.000 a trader, and so a posthumous execution was ordered for 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:15.480 the dead man, who was exhumed and summarily beheaded, and, 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:19.359 as with Charles's skull displayed at the Palace of Westminster, 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:21.960 now as a warning to those who may try to 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:25.960 carry on Cromwell's republican tradition. It would be displayed there 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:29.520 for nearly two years. As the Stuart monarchy reclaimed the 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:33.560 throne after the coronation of Charles the Second in sixteen sixty, 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.800 the head was removed from its public perch, boxed up 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.120 and placed in Saint George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, with 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:43.640 the thought that its gruesome reminder was no longer necessary. 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:47.760 It would remain hidden until sixteen eighty five, after Charles 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:51.360 the Second's brother, James the Second, took the throne. You see, 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.960 it was during his reign that yet another uprising took place, 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.000 and although it was quelled, Cromwell's head was brought back 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.600 out and put on display at the Tower of London 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:03.720 just to be safe. And after that, while the head 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:08.640 vanished from official inventories, its ultimate fate shrouded in mystery. 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:13.800 And looking at these two gruesome spectacles, several striking parallels 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:18.520 and contrasts emerge. Both heads were exhibited in highly visible 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:22.719 civic locations, ensuring that the largest possible number of ordinary 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:26.480 citizens would witness the stark warning. Yet the timing of 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:31.039 the displays diverged dramatically. Charles the First's head was shown 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:35.159 immediately after his death, serving to legitimize a brand new 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.400 Commonwealth and a signal that the old order had been broken. 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:42.640 Cromwell's head, by contrast, was displayed years after his burial, 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:47.560 precisely to delegitimize the Republican experiment that he had embodied 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.919 and to try to reinforce the restored Stewart claim to 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:53.920 divine right. But the most striking difference of all between 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.240 those heads was probably how they were treated after they. 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:00.320 Were on display. Charles the first head was buried neat 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.520 the floor of Saint Peter ad Vincula, a gesture of 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:06.720 royal clemency that allowed the king's remains to rest in 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:11.600 consecrated ground. Crownwell's head, on the other hand, simply vanished, 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:31.240 reflecting the monarchy's intention to erase his legacy entirely. Erasmus 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:34.440 was a large, friendly man, although his face didn't always 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:37.240 show it. His features tended to droop and make it 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.240 look like he was scowling, but in truth he had 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:42.839 never been happier in his life. The year it was 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:45.640 seventeen ninety and he was living with his second wife 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:49.040 and their children in their home in Derbyshire, England. Although 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.280 he was a doctor by trade, he also had a 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:56.280 second passion invention. He was seated now in his workshop 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.960 sketching plans for a combustion device that could be used 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.920 to propel carriages. He already tinkered with his existing carriage, 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.200 making it sturdier and easier to steer. Now, he wondered 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:08.920 if he could get it to move on its own 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.880 without horses. But this invention would have to wait. The 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.240 sun was rising and he needed to get out to 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.720 his garden to observe his plants. Now that might sound 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.839 boring to you and I, but natural observation had always 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.440 been an important part of Erasmus's medical practice, because, as 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:28.200 far as Erasmus was concerned, the only difference between a 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.440 doctor and a shaman was observation as to whether a 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.720 plant was actually effective at treating the disease in question. 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.200 Keeping an open mind, but also doing empirical research allowed 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:43.080 Erasmus to find success treating people who other doctors hadn't 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:46.520 been able to help. For example, back in the seventeen sixties, 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:49.159 he had become so well known for this approach to 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.560 medicine that the King himself asked Erasmus to be his 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:56.800 personal physician, but Erasmus declined. He wanted to have time 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:00.760 to focus on his experiments. Looking at a thorn apple 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:03.520 plant growing in his garden, he was pleased at how 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.680 well it was doing. Erasmus had learned to cultivate plants 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:10.720 by splicing different samples to create the strongest possible plant. 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:13.000 It was the kind of thing that humanity had done 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:15.600 for thousands of years, but now he was putting these 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:19.000 plants to the greatest possible use. After his work in 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.600 the garden was done, he spent his afternoon at his 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:25.080 medical practice, attending to patience. He saw one man who 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:27.480 he felt quite bad for, because thus far he'd been 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:31.560 unable to help him. The span was large, like Erasmus himself, 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:35.680 but unlike Erasmus, he had poor circulation and stamina. His 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:39.320 heart seemed to be struggling. In the past, Erasmus had 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:42.120 also treated this man's father, who had died from a 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.960 similar condition. The father ate as much as Erasmus and 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:48.640 was also quite large, and so it seemed to this 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:52.680 doctor that the father had passed this propensity toward overeating 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:55.760 onto his son. Erasmus worried that he had done the 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:58.880 same to his own children. But as he checked the 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.840 man's vitals, a star startling link formed in his mind 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:04.480 between the thorn apple and his garden and the man 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:07.760 on his exam table. Both were the product of their parents. 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:10.880 Only one had inherited traits that were useful, and the 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:13.880 other had inherited traits that were harmful, and while the 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:17.600 plant and its offspring would endure, this patient sadly would not. 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:20.720 Much of the plant and animal kingdom that Erasmus had 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:25.000 observed behaved in a similar way. Each species produced variations, 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:28.520 the most adaptable of which survived and even evolved into 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.720 new species. It had struck him as odd that so 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.480 many plants and animals all seemed to be a variation 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:38.080 of one another. Even humans themselves were a sort of 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:42.040 variation on a chimpanzee if one observed how similar the 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.640 two species were. And so that night, Erasmus took his 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:49.040 idea to the latest meeting of the Lunar Society, a 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.600 group of scientists and inventors that he was friends with. 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:55.920 His friend Josiah Wedgewood was present. Josiah was a businessman 0:08:55.960 --> 0:09:00.559 who always encouraged Erasmus's endeavors, including his writing of poetry, 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:02.920 which had in fact led to him becoming the most 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.640 popular poet in England on top of all of his 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:10.199 other accomplishments. Josiah thought that Erasmus's theory that all life 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:13.640 might somehow be connected in some way was quite interesting, 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.080 and told him that he should expand on it in 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:20.040 a book. Encouraged, Erasmus decided to do just that. They 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.720 spent the rest of the meeting discussing the abolition of 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:27.559 slavery and the education of women, two causes the society supported, 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:31.199 but they were having trouble gaining traction for in English society, 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.840 and over the next few years, Erasmus expanded on his 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:39.319 ideas in his two volume work Zoonomia, where he detailed 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:42.920 his understanding of anatomy and how to treat various illnesses. 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:45.760 And in the book, this is something that he wrote, 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:48.800 would it be too bold to imagine that, in the 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:51.800 great length of time since the earth began to exist, 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.920 perhaps millions of years, that all warm blooded animals have 0:09:56.040 --> 0:10:00.600 arisen from one living filament. Sadly, the book didn't gain 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:04.679 much traction during his lifetime. Decades later, though, long after 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:09.079 Erasmus's death, his grandson Charles, began to research his grandfather 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.320 in an attempt to get to know him. Erasmus's ideas 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:16.960 inspired Charles's own research, and eventually, through observing animal and 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:22.199 plant life, Charles put forth his own theory of evolution. Curiously, 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:26.240 it was Erasmus Darwin and not his grandson Charles, who 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:30.960 first thought of the foundational scientific theory. Erasmus was a polymath, 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.440 someone who is knowledgeable about a variety of things. For 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:38.040 all his accomplishments, though it was the writing least admired 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:45.800 in his own lifetime that contained his greatest ideas. I 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:49.520 hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:53.120 This show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.120 with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:59.640 Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:01.920 the show and the people who make it over at 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:06.200 Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:09.720 to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:13.400 bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.040 if you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.040 our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without the 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:20.120 interruption for. 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:21.400 A small monthly fee. 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.400 Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com, 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:29.080 slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.