Sec. 8, for example, begins: Nulla vidua distringatur ad se maritandum, dum voluerit vivere sine marito... (No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long as she prefers to live without a husband...)
For about 200 years after the Norman Conquest, none of the kings of England spoke English, the language of the common people (by then they were speaking what is now called Middle English rather than Anglo-Saxon or Old English). The kings and nobles spoke French.
One legacy of that era is that names of animals in modern English are derived from Anglo-Saxon (a Germanic language) while often the meat from that animal has a name derived from French (reflecting the form of the animal the elite came in contact with):
cow vs. beef
pig vs. pork
calf vs. veal
sheep vs. mutton
John is interesting in that he was the first king since Harold II who was fully English literate (read, write, speak). His father, Henry II, understood spoken English to an extent. His mother Elanor knew none. There is no definitive proof that Richard I knew English, but considering how much time he spent around other French speakers and how little time he spent in England, he probably had little use for it.
Interestingly, John’s son, King Henry III, never bothered to learn English.