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Most of the answers you want are on this page:
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictF.html
It's from a foot on the end of some guy's leg, and drastically altered over the ages. The modern one is from the 1100s and is claimed to have been set down by King Henry I (nicknamed Beauclerc, or good scholar) and was inscribed at the foot of Saint Paul's church. Interestingly, Wren's reconstruction of Saint Paul's Cathedral made the peak of the cross above the dome 365 feet above the pavement - one foot for each day of the year. Fun masonic stuff. The golden ratio is all over it.
As with Wren's later architecture, you have to suspect Muslim influences in Beauclerc's learning, bearing in mind what his family (epecially grandpappy and brother Robert) were up to in the Holy Land. Unless he wore quite wacky boots, it seems unlikely the foot was actually measured off Henry Beauclerc or his family. Perhaps it was first codified in Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah's House of Knowledge in Cairo? Pah, I should write a better historical conspiracy novel than that da Vinci Code pulp.
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DrGoon
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