20 Strange Historical Divorce Customs From Around The World

Before the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857, divorce in England was prohibitively expensive; getting a divorce through a private act of Parliament might set you back several hundred pounds. So many men “sold” their wives to a prearranged purchaser by parading them in the marketplace with a rope around their wrists. Many men were actually selling a wife to a lover already involved with her. Historian E. P. Thompson’s research shows these were prearranged, consensual transactions agreed to by all parties, rather than forced sales.

Nevada cut its residency requirement for divorce to six weeks and liberalized the grounds for divorce to include broad categories such as mental cruelty. In March 1931, in the midst of the Great Depression, thousands of people, about 60% of them women, traveled to the state, stayed in what were known as “divorce ranches,” and established their residency by spending the required six weeks in the county. When they received their divorce decrees, some went to the Virginia Street Bridge and tossed their wedding rings into the Truckee River. Nothing says fresh start quite like sending the ring downstream.

A husband could end a marriage in feudal Japan by writing a mikudari-han, a divorce letter that was typically only about three and a half lines long. In many cases, the only explanation was “we’re not compatible.” Only men could issue them, though many women were quick to demand one; without it, they remained legally married, and if they remarried, they could be punished for adultery. A wife could also petition Tōkei-ji, a Buddhist convent that became known as a “divorce temple,” where taking refuge and living as a nun for a period of time could eventually secure her freedom from the marriage.

In Iceland, Norse divorce was regulated by Grágás, a collection of medieval Icelandic laws, around 800–1200 CE. This required that each party announce their intent in front of witnesses at three locations: next to the marital bed, at the entry to the house, and at the Thing, the public assembly where laws were discussed and legal cases decided. A woman could claim divorce if her husband abused her, didn’t provide financial support, or dressed too femininely. Even ending a marriage came with an itinerary.

According to the Code of Hammurabi, a collection of Babylonian laws etched in stone around 1750 BCE, a man could end his childless marriage by simply saying, “You are not my wife.” He was required to give back her dowry in its entirety and to give back the price he had paid for her, or one mina, an ancient unit of weight used for silver, if no price had been agreed on. If she left him without cause, she could be executed or publicly humiliated.

Before 1937, English courts would only grant divorces based on adultery. So if you wanted a divorce but had no real grounds, your husband might agree to check into a hotel in Brighton under his true name with an actress he’d hired to pose as his mistress, and hope a chambermaid would “discover” them together at breakfast. It was essentially an affair staged for the evidence. (Judges suspicious of such arrangements dismissed cases like these, charging both parties with perjury.) The absurdity of the process was lampooned in Holy Deadlock (1934), by English writer and legal reform campaigner A.P. Herbert.

According to Jewish law, a marriage can only be terminated through the delivery of a get, a religious bill of divorce. The husband must have an authorized scribe draft the document in Aramaic. He must then hand the document into his wife’s open hands in the presence of two witnesses. If the husband declines to give the get, his wife becomes an agunah (“a chained woman”). She is unable to remarry according to religious law. Rabbinic courts have historically applied social and economic pressure on husbands who refuse to grant one to secure the wife’s release.

The Hopi of the American Southwest were matrilocal, meaning husbands moved into their wives’ households after marriage. Women owned the houses, clan property, and household possessions. A Hopi woman could end her marriage by placing her husband’s moccasins and hunting equipment in front of her door. Upon seeing them, he knew that was it and went back to his clan home. He would still have his place there. Getting your things put outside the door was considerably more official in this case.

The French Revolutionary Legislative Assembly made marriage a civil contract rather than one controlled by the church on September 20, 1792. You could go down to your local town hall and get a divorce if you declared “incompatibility of temper.” No need for adultery, no need for fault. If both parties requested divorce, you got it within days. The Napoleonic Civil Code of 1804 brought some restrictions back, but the Bourbon Restoration abolished divorce altogether in 1816.

In traditional Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, a husband could exercise his right of talaq, or divorce by repudiation. In one variety known as “triple talaq,” he could utter the words “I divorce you” three times in one sitting, immediately terminating the marriage without the need for a judge. He was required to pay the wife her mandatory marriage payment, or dower, and she was given a waiting period of three months to ensure that she was not pregnant. Most classical jurists strongly condemned the “one sitting” method as sinful, and Shi’a law did not recognize it.

In late Republican and Imperial Rome, the vast majority of marriages were “without hand,” meaning the wife did not legally pass into her husband’s control but remained under her father’s authority. The union lasted only as long as both partners intended to stay married. All that was necessary for either party to effect a divorce was the words “Take your things to yourself,” the demand for the return of the house keys, or the delivery of a letter. Roman emperor Augustus later decreed that there had to be seven witnesses to a written divorce.

In Korea during the Joseon Dynasty, Neo-Confucianism, a philosophy that strongly emphasized social hierarchy and family loyalty, shaped how marriage rules applied to the privileged yangban class. Under the “Seven Faults,” a man could repudiate his wife for not obeying her parents-in-law, producing no sons, committing adultery, being jealous, having a disease, being gossipy or stealing. However, protections barred divorce if the wife had nowhere to go, if she had mourned her in-laws for three years, or if she had helped build the family’s wealth from poverty.

The divorce agreements of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods in Egypt were handled through written release contracts drafted by professional scribes, in Demotic, a form of written Egyptian used for everyday documents. The husband released the wife from marriage, declared her eligible to marry again, and promised that he would restore her dowry and her goods, usually within a month; failure to do so led to a fine, to be paid monthly until the debt was settled, as set out in the divorce agreement. Ancient divorce paperwork was still paperwork, after all!

Between the Tang and Qing dynasties, a Chinese husband was allowed to cast aside a wife on seven counts, including lack of a male child, defiance of his parents, and theft. The husband would write out a letter of dismissal, usually signed and pressed down with his ink-stained thumb, copies of which have been found in the Dunhuang manuscripts, a huge collection of historical documents discovered in caves in northwestern China. The law stipulated that the repudiation was invalid if the wife had no home to go back to or if the pair had become prosperous from poverty.

In Ethiopia’s Amhara region, the normal marriage was semanya (“eighty”), a civil contract concluded between families on the basis of an oath and a breach penalty set at 80 Maria Theresa thalers, silver coins widely used as currency in the region. Since it was a civil marriage and not an indissoluble marriage of the Orthodox Church, divorce was permissible. The elders in a family court examined the marital property and divided each cow, utensil, or other item equally between the spouses and assessed a fine for whoever violated the oath. Even the cows made it onto the divorce inventory.

In early medieval Ireland, Brehon Law was a body of customary law, which was first written down in about the 7th century CE. In this system, a wife had every right to divorce her husband and keep her bride-price and property if he struck her, leaving a mark on her face. She could divorce him if he wrote a poem ridiculing her, boasted about her nakedness in public, or failed to offer her financial support. So yes, writing a terrible poem about your wife could have actual legal consequences.

In Burma, giving betel leaves and areca nut to chew was one way of confirming hospitality or sealing a marriage agreement. To obtain a divorce, a husband or wife tore a green betel leaf straight down the middle, and gave half of the torn leaf to the other spouse. If the spouse accepted the torn leaf and chewed it, then it was considered that both parties mutually agreed on the divorce and the division of the property, with no court or village trial required.

Under the legal doctrine of coverture, a married woman’s legal identity was largely absorbed into her husband’s, and he could be held responsible for debts she incurred. When an American wife left home, her husband would often buy a notice in the newspaper that said she had “eloped from my bed and board.” He identified the wife, told merchants not to extend her credit, and made clear that he wasn’t responsible for her debts. Women sometimes published their own notices, denouncing their husbands for cruelty or desertion. The notices ran from the 1700s until the 1880s. The marital dispute had, in effect, made it into the classifieds.

In the Inca Empire as well as in Andean cultures today, marriage might be preceded by a recognized trial period known as servinacuy, which lasted up to a year. In this period, elders would tie one end of the bride’s woven mantle to the groom’s tunic as a sign that they were officially living together. If the trial did not work out, elders untied the knot, and the two went back to their respective families, able to attempt another match at any time, without shame or debt. In this case, “untying the knot” could be surprisingly literal.

A Classical Athenian husband could divorce by apopompe, which meant sending his wife and her dowry back to her father or male guardian. The wife had to ask for a divorce, called apoleipsis, and then she had to walk across the agora, Athens’ public marketplace and civic center, in order to approach the archon, a senior public official who handled the matter. Her husband might prevent her from getting there. The Athenian statesman Alcibiades did exactly that to his wife, Hipparete, reportedly intercepting her in the agora and taking her home.

This content was created with the help of AI.