Medieval Divorce: Prove Impotence

[guy]

In Medieval England, one of the few ways for a woman to get a divorce was to prove her husband's impotence. 

 

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In the year 1370, Tedia Lambhird filed for divorce from John Saundirson, claiming that her husband was impotent. Next, she had to prove it. Fortunately for Tedia, she had eyewitnesses.

One key witness, Thomas son of Stephen, testified in church court that he had seen the couple unsuccessfully attempting to have sex in John’s father’s barn before 9 o’clock one springtime morning. In spite of the fact that John and Tedia were “applying themselves with zeal to the work of carnal intercourse,” Thomas reported that he saw “John’s rod was lowered and in no way rising or becoming erect.” Furthermore, Thomas claimed that John’s brother also witnessed the failed sexual encounter, adding that the brother stroked John’s penis with his hand in order to see if he could help.

So to summarize: John Saundirson not only tried (and failed) to have early-morning barn-sex with his wife before an audience of two men but also received ineffective manual penis stimulation from his own brother. Thanks to Thomas’s devastating testimony, Tedia won her case.

 

https://narratively.com/the-distinguished-medieval-penis-investigators/

 

 

 

Summary: Times have changed, for sure. I guess there were no quickie Las Vegas divorces or "little blue pills" back then. Well, things could be worse: You could always die from the Bubonic Plague.

 

 

(Thanks to Lapham's Quarterly for bringing this article to my attention)

 

 

 

Additional information:

 

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Under medieval Church law, there were only a few, very specific reasons which could allow men and women to ask for a divorce. These included:

• where one party had a pre-contract of marriage with another individual
• there was a blood or spiritual relation between the individuals, for example a godparent
• impotence
• the use of force or fear to obtain consent
• the carrying out of a crime (usually adultery)
• marrying a minor
• clandestine marriages
• marriages entered into under false pretences

https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/till-death-us-part-divorce-medieval-england/

 

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by guy