ABSTRACT
The two centuries between the Restoration in 1660 and the introduction of civil divorce in 1857 was a period within the history of England and Wales when validly contracted marriages remained judicially indissoluble. Parliament did not make any attempt to change this policy until the latter end of this period but, instead, directed its attention towards the evils connected with the formation of marriage. Until the Marriage Act of 1753 it had been the Church’s prerogative to declare what were the acceptable ways of contracting a recognizable and valid marriage and to judge upon the lawfulness of disputed marriages. Intervention by the state in 1753 challenged the Church’s former monopoly. This new legislation would eventually force Parliament to be equally concerned about providing a more rational legal route out of a calamitous marriage than that offered by the existing costly and protracted itinerary that led to the House of Lords and a private Act of divorce.
