Re: [NTLK] [OT] Exact Measurement of King Henry

From: BobR <newttalk_at_old-sock.co.uk>
Date: Thu May 01 2008 - 18:48:07 EDT

Doug Denby writes:

> A yard ... Coincidently this is the distance for normally
> proportioned males from the tip of their fingers to the nose when arms
> are outstretched. Standardized to King Henry I's (1068-1135) personal
> measurements.

This interests me a lot !
King Henry I is the only monarch in the last 1000 years to be buried in the
town of Reading where I live. Most Kings lie in Westminster, Windsor or
Winchester. I researched beyond the bad press commonly seen in books and
King Henry turns out to be quite amazing. He set up the present system of
taxation, with the Exchequer and its annual audit. He set up the
county-courts and public-inquest system, still surviving today; he
established England's first zoo (at Woodstock); he introduced better
processing of sheepskin (from France); he reformed the coinage system to
prevent fraud; he introduced comprehensive regulations in Latin to be used
by his civil servants; he married a daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland
(he is featured in Shakespear's Macbeth, her mother was St.Margaret). I
think it's possible that he also introduced double-entry book-keeping for
the treasury accounts - I found an early date in the 1150's for that, with
the Knights Templars. But I hadn't yet seen any mention of
weights-and-measures, because I hadn't been looking in that area.
It sounds quite likely - Doug, did you have a reference for the yard
connection (or is it obvious somewhere on the www) ?

BobR.

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Received on Fri May 2 03:02:36 2008

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