One measure of any reform’s ripeness is the extent to which most people assume that it has happened already
THOSE WHOM God has joined together, let no one put asunder. Or so the resonant words of the Church of England’s marriage ceremony have it. The laws of England, however, have typically taken a more moderate approach. For the past 150-odd years they have been footnoting that fine phrase with occasions when a little sundering might be suitable after all.
. Boris Johnson wrote in 2012 that he had been “flummoxed” when asked whether he supported gay marriage because “I thought it was already legal” . Similarly, most people might assume it has long been possible to divorce promptly in England without resorting to blame. Instead, for the past half-century, many divorcing couples who wished to end their marriages swiftly found themselves compelled to, as one put it, “wildly vomit bile onto a page and click ‘submit’”.
Indeed, few families offer a finer potted history of English divorce than the royal one. It was easier for Henry VIII to separate England from the Catholic Church, and his spouse’s head from her neck, than himself from his wives. By the time Edward VIII acceded to the throne in 1936, divorce had become legally easier—but remained socially costly.
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