Who were the first people to get divorced in Western* Christendom?
score:16
I know of a Galician (NW Iberian Peninsula) charter issued before a notary and a judge in 1457 where a married couple divorce by mutual agreement. You can access a good edition of the original document here: Gallaeciae Monumenta Historica. The original document is contained in the notebook of a notary from western Galicia, and it is dated in 1457. My bad, fast translation from the original, which is written in Old Galician:
This day, month, and year, in the aforementioned place; Fernando Miguéns, stonemason, said that, because he was unhappy with the life he was doing with his wife Dominga, and with the intention of refraining from harming one another, that he wanted to separate from her, and that he gives back her freedom, so that she from this day on could do with her body and possessions anything she would like to. And the aforementioned Dominga said that, since this was his will, that he shall take the burden of this decision on his soul, but that she was conform and as well she free him so that both of them could be free of one another. And both parts promised not to accuse one another under penalty of paying 100 florins of gold. Two charters were written under these premises. Witnesses: Fernando of Catoira [,knight ,] and Gomez of Ribademar, judge, and Diego Maceda, citizens of Rianxo.
So, apparently the wife have some spiritual concerns on the decision, but otherwise she agreed. I must say that I have read thousands of medieval Galician charters and this is the only one (I am aware of) containing a (civil) divorce.
EDIT:
(Oh, boy, another one)
I have found another, earlier, one. It was issued in Ourense, in the SE of Galicia, in 1434, and among the witnesses there were a priest. The edition of the original document can be found here. In this case the couple decided to divorce because they had both committed adultery and hated one another, so, pretty atemporal, isn't it? Again, my cheap fast, and now partial, translation:
In this day; Estevo Calvo and his wife Inés of Bovadela, because they were married [...] and because there is such discordance and enmity between them both, because both committed adultery, so that they are both in sin in case they both would made common life, and with the intention of doing a good service to God and to one another, both will give one another a charter of partition so that each one can do with his or her body as he or she likes, as if they had never been married, and so from this day on they could marry other persons, or sleep with other persons, or live with other persons [...] Witnesses: Rodrigo Eanes, Clergyman of the choir of the Cathedral of Ourense, and Afonso of Luxilde, and Vasco, attendants of Pascual Rodríguez, and others.
Upvote:2
Since you specify divorce before the law, rather than divorce before the church, the logical answer is the 1857 divorce act
The Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 was the first divorce law of general application. dfp.co.uk
Caroline [Norton] was a moving force behind one of the most emancipating pieces of legislation in our history, the Marriage and Divorce Act. . . DailyMail
Upvote:3
It all depends on the meaning of the term and on the period, considering the differences between annulment and modern divorce.
Marriage became a sacrament only in 1215 with the Fourth Council of the Lateran, after a period when there were no marriage contracts and marriage could be dismantled (according to the French Wikipedia article on history of divorce). The church opposed this practice but had difficulty in imposing its views even after 1215, as the answer on the Spanish cases shows. Annulment and divortium in the sense of "Séparation de corps" were practiced as an alternative to the divorce in the modern sense, as they preserved the sanctity of marriage.
Remariage seems more problematic, notwithstanding the Spanish cases. But practically one can imagine that it was not impossible, the farther one went from the location of the previous marriage, given that centralized records were absent.
In a larger sense, divorce seems much older in European countries than the dates posted in answers here in relation with England and Prussia, which invoke modern legislation.
More or less amusing, one reason for the mariage to be annulled was sexual impotence, which (at least in France) needed to be proved or disproved within the ancient judicial institution of Congrès.
Quick translation from French Wikipedia:
In the Middle Ages, until the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Congress was a judicial ordeal, ordered by the judicial authority generally at the demand of the wife, which the husband had to undergo in order to prove his sexual potence in view of the cancellation of mariage or of divorce. In the presence of judges, officials, councilors, lawyers, court clerks, and medical experts, the spouses were united in a closed bed that was in use at the time, and it was for the Court to witness the impossibility of sexual relation between the spouses. This process, which was somewhat of an ordeal, was gradually abandoned as unreliable, as some husbands who had been impressed by the solemnity of the judicial system, proved fertile after remarriage.
The Wikipedia page lacks references and may be incorrect (mentions both divorce and remarriage instead of just annulment, and a later date for the end of the practice), but some references can be found here.
The article is from the Grand Dictionnaire Universel of Pierre Larousse, of 19th century.
The practice seems to have been abolished in 1677.
Upvote:11
If you count Spain as part of Western Europe, then divorce was available at least to the Muslim population from the time of the Arab conquest in the 8th century until the Catholic reconquest in the 15th century. The same is true for the Jews, both in Islamic and Catholic Europe. As I mentioned in a comment to another answer, Fredrick II legalised civil divorce in Prussia in 1752, long before the British Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857.
More post
- 📝 Why were balls used on the Medici coat of arms?
- 📝 From Twitter: When did Islamic literacy fall behind?
- 📝 What was horse population & growth in Northern UK 1500 to 1850?
- 📝 Who were the successors of the Roman Empire?
- 📝 What type of magazine was "Classic CD"?
- 📝 Is there a British equivalent in architectural history to American cabins?
- 📝 Has any U.S. Vice President cast a tie-breaking vote against their own administration?
- 📝 What is the source for the Baal Shem Tov's signature?
- 📝 Were slings used as melee weapons?
- 📝 Who really put to flight American hostages in America's embassy in Tehran in 1979?
- 📝 Were there distinctions between Arab, Berbers and Iberian Muslims in 10th century Islamic Spain?
- 📝 Why were Roman gladiators "expensive"?
- 📝 What are the safeguards in the German constitution of 1949 against dictatorship?
- 📝 Why does the Spanish Military Medical Corps use the Amalfitan Cross?
- 📝 What are the origins of Pakistani laws on "blasphemy?"
- 📝 Historically, why did the US station their nuclear weapons in Germany for delivery through German pilots?
- 📝 Has there been talk of a post-work economy before?
- 📝 Does Jewish history record Jesus's saying "I am God" or similar utterance?
- 📝 The history of the idea that lack of moral censure leads to decline
- 📝 Abraham Lincoln Quote Background
- 📝 Why did Argentina invade the Falklands when they did, rather than wait for the pending sale of the UK aircraft carriers to complete first?
- 📝 What was the Ancient Egyptian's word for eleventh or twelfth?
- 📝 How did Columbus calculate the size of the Earth?
- 📝 Did American policymakers seriously consider scaling down Lend Lease Aid to the Soviet Union after the battle of Kursk?
- 📝 Were the Roman Empire provinces Alpes Poeninae and Alpes Graiae different provinces or the same?
- 📝 Is there a student of Arnold J Toynbee with an opinion about the state and fate of Western Civilization?
- 📝 When did banks start giving interest to depositors?
- 📝 Why were the West African islands uninhabited?
- 📝 Earning a living from teaching chess in 18-19th century England
- 📝 What level of knowledge was required to enter medieval universities?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Who were the first people to get divorced in Western* Christendom?
- 📝 Who were the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Western Europe?
- 📝 Who were the first "businessmen" to rival the kings throughout the world?
- 📝 Who were some of the specific people in the Renaissance who wrote about their period being different from the Middle Ages?
- 📝 Who were the first two democratically elected leaders of Russia?
- 📝 Did the people who initiated the trans-Atlantic slave trade think they were doing something new?
- 📝 How big was the percentage of white people in the USA who were not against granting the blacks equal rights?
- 📝 Who were the first leaders of the Yahwistic sect?
- 📝 Were there any monarchs of England or the United Kingdom who were not technically first in the line of succession?
- 📝 Were there women who were against giving women the right to vote?
- 📝 Why were Albanians the only nation in the Balkans who converted to Islam during the Ottoman occupation?
- 📝 Were the first sonic booms predicted?
- 📝 Who were the Huns and/or Xiongnu?
- 📝 How did people react to Cavendish bananas when they first replaced the Gros Michel strain?
- 📝 In WWII, what were the major differences in tank combat on the eastern and western fronts?
- 📝 Who was the first female ruler to be given the suffix, "the great"?
- 📝 Were Soviets invited to the Marshall Islands to observe the first hydrogen bomb detonations?
- 📝 Who discovered first that the Moon does not have its own light?
- 📝 When and where were the first coins made showing the currency or a face value?
- 📝 Is black American history only about segregation, slavery, and the 3 people you get taught about in school?
- 📝 Why did some people need to pay a bond in the 1700s in order to get married?
- 📝 What were the first local currency systems in history?
- 📝 Who was the first woman ruler?
- 📝 Why were people from the Asian Steppes able to militarily dominate Europeans on a repeated basis?
- 📝 Who invented the first flag?
- 📝 When were US Presidential candidates' names first shown on the ballot?
- 📝 Who are these people in this satirical cartoon of the Congress of Verona?
- 📝 What were Hispanic people called in the US in the 1800s?
- 📝 Where were the western legions when the Roman empire fell?
- 📝 How did people say “I have to go to the bathroom” before the bathroom and pipes were common?
