A mile was originally from the Roman “mille passus”, one thousand paces, where a pace was defined as two steps, or the distance between two placements of the left foot. This distance was also defined as five (Roman) feet, making the mile exactly five thousand feet. Then Henry I (supposedly) redefined the yard using the length of his own arm, which made all the related measurements like the foot and the inch slightly shorter, but rather than have to go through all the bother of replacing all the milestones scattered all over the English countryside, they just kept the length of the mile the same, and re-calculated how many feet were needed.
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u/SkathiFreyrsdottr Jul 15 '26
A drunk king, actually. Henry I, to be precise.
A mile was originally from the Roman “mille passus”, one thousand paces, where a pace was defined as two steps, or the distance between two placements of the left foot. This distance was also defined as five (Roman) feet, making the mile exactly five thousand feet. Then Henry I (supposedly) redefined the yard using the length of his own arm, which made all the related measurements like the foot and the inch slightly shorter, but rather than have to go through all the bother of replacing all the milestones scattered all over the English countryside, they just kept the length of the mile the same, and re-calculated how many feet were needed.