Final answer:
Isaac Newton spent the plague years of 1665-1666 at his family home in Woolsthorpe, where he developed foundational theories in calculus, optics, and physics, later published in the Principia, which was rapidly accepted due to the era's shift towards scientific explanations.
Step-by-step explanation:
During the plague years of 1665 and 1666 in England, Isaac Newton retreated to his family estate in Woolsthorpe. Away from Cambridge University, Newton accomplished groundbreaking work in various fields. Amidst the backdrop of the Bubonic Plague and other significant events such as the Great Fire of London and political upheavals, Newton developed his theories on calculus, optics, and the laws of motion and universal gravitation. All these were later published in his seminal work, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (often referred to as the Principia), financed by Edmund Halley in 1687. This era's embrace of reason and observation over divine explanation for natural phenomena contributed to the rapid acceptance of Newton's revolutionary ideas.