Spanish Marriage

The institute of marriage is one which is highly contested in modern culture, mainly the situation of who may marry, but no one outside of the church raises the question of whom may get divorced. in the 15th to the 17th Centuries the issue of divorce was a hot topic. in the 15th to 17th Centuries marriage was a sacred and inseparable bond that no one could break save God. to put aside a marriage by divorce was not only incredibly hard it was considered a sin, and in a culture largely governed by the church and religious practice, this was more important than law. in Spain however, there were numerous laws governing what situations allowed a divorce, such as the inability to have children, or if it could be proven the marriage was forced. a forced marriage could be nullified based on the fact that it was not a true holy marriage in the eyes of God because it was not take willingly. it would be difficult to prove a marriage was taken unwillingly if the victim had less witnesses than their souse or more feasibly none at all. the law did have a way out even for this however because divorce was allowed should one of the spouses choose to enter religious service in a monastery or convent. so even if a woman had no way of proving her marriage had been forced upon her she could instead take up the lesser of two solitudes by entering a nunnery. a life in the service of God, even if it was not the individuals first choice, would be far better than the prison of a forced marriage. the case of breaking a marriage went both ways however the laws did not work only for unhappy women but their were laws which protected women from adulterous and conniving men who would try to leave them after having had their way with the woman. a man who would attempt to cheat marriage by seducing the woman with promises of marriage to get her into bed and then leave would more than likely find themselves before a judge much like a man who fathered a child in today’s culture would if he tried to ditch the child and mother. unlike todays culture however instead of paying continual child support payments the man would pay a single settlement for his misdeed of either betraying his spouse or drastically changing a woman’s life after having seduced her. the Spain of the 15th and 17th Centuries differed from other countries in that it did provide laws for divorce, a way out if the couple was not happy.