Overview

In this historical study of divorce and separation, Lawrence Stone draws on a mass of court records to show how English men and women have contrived to use, twist, or defy the law in order to deal with marital breakdown. Despite the infamous divorce of Henry VIII in 1529, subsequent moral, political, and religious attitudes ensured that until 1857, England was the only Protestant country with no facilities for divorce, even on grounds of adultery, desertion, or cruelty. Revealing our ancestors' frank views on love, sex, marriage, and adultery, this is the complex story of a topic rich in historical interest and contemporary importance. The book should be of interest to scholars and students of British social, cultural, legal, religious, economic, and demographic history, and women's studies, and specialists in the history of the family and of marriage, as well as general readers interested in marriage and divorce.

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9780192852557

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This splendid and original study, by the leading English historian of family life, maps out the changing moral views of our ancestors over the past four centuries towards marriage and divorce. The text, largely based on court records, is full of entertaining human vignettes. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

About the Author: Lawrence Stone is Dodge Professor of History and Director of the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University. He is also the author of Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800.

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