A Study On Divorce Of England In 1500-1857

The phenomenon of divorce in England(1500-1857)is an important aspect reflecting the transformation of the marriage idea.Divorce was uncommon but existed in the Middle Ages.People could abolish illegitimate marriages,couldn’t dissolve legitimate marriage,and could live apart if necessary,these constituted the generally accepted concept of divorce both in ecclesiastic and secular society.Guided by this notion,the main forms of divorce in medieval England were annulment and judicial separation,with the ecclesiastical courts being the sole jurisdictional institution.In the early modern,although England was still an officially non-divorcing society,economic development,parliamentary power and the ideological emancipation movements led to a transformation in the concept of divorce,resulted in a more diverse and refined divorce procedure.It was reflected in many aspects: a greater variety of grounds for divorce;the development of more divorce forms: formal marital breakdown included judicial separation and parliamentary divorce;informal ways included private separation,wife-sale and desertion.In addition,the main consequences of divorce today,such as the division of assets,the payment of maintenance and the allocation of custody,which were already the focus of social attention in those days.With the development of the times,divorce procedures are becoming more and more complicated.This feature adapted to the needs of different classes,also reflected their divorce characteristics.Kings and nobles were the first to attack the restrictions on divorce left over from the Middle Ages,and their divorce has political and religious purpose.The middle classes,with a stronger economic base,were accompanied by complex property bonds,and they did not hesitate to fabricate reasons for divorce or collude to divorce in order to achieve their goals.The poor at the bottom saw little emancipation from the progress of the divorce system,because the stretched economic conditions made them unable and lack the courage to dissolve marriage through formal channels,most of them could only by wife-sale.The period from 1500 to 1857 was a transitional stage in England from “prohibition of divorce” to “recognition of divorce” at the national legal level,and it was also the process of legalizing divorce.In this process,individuals,families and societies are simultaneously suffering from the progress and challenges,benefits and disadvantages brought about by the transition of regime.Human society advanced in the contradictory movement,and it was in the contradictory movement that the concept of individual rights to the freedom of marriage and divorce spread during early modern England.At the same time,it is necessary to correctly handle the multifaceted impacts caused by the adjustment of the divorce system in order to make useful explorations for the realization of human freedom and all-round development.