ABSTRACT
The first period of French divorce ran from 1792 to 1816, and the political armature of revolutionary divorce had a grand ring to it. Subsequently, divorce was largely an urban phenomenon. Between 1792 and 1803 there was, according to Phillips, in Nantes one divorce to every twenty-six marriages, in Lyons one to every eleven, in Rouen one to every eight, and in Paris a staggering one divorce to every four marriages. The Revolution’s liberal provision for divorce was finally diluted in the Civil Code under Title VI, decreed on 21 March 1803 and promulgated on 31 March. Following the definitive removal of Napoleon, even this ‘divorce minimum’ was unacceptable to the Chambre Introuvable of the Restoration by 1816. There were already 3715 requests for divorce lined up in 1883, with around 3000 separations per year on average during the 1880s. Requests for divorce grew to 5439 in 1884 and 7550 in 1885.
