Divorced, Beheaded, Sold

Covering more than 300 years of English history, Maria Nicolaou reveals how people ended their marriages in the days before divorce was readily available.

A fresh perspective on the seamy side of history, Maria Nicolaou has done considerable research into the largely unexplored area of divorce and marital separation from the Tudor period to the early Victorian era. Divorced, Beheaded, Sold is full of scandalous, little-known stories of bigamy, wife sale, marital discord, and audacious escapades of errant spouses. There’s Con Philips, who fought off her husband with a gun filled with firework powder; the Duke of Grafton, who hired an army of detectives to spy on his wife and obtain proof of her adultery; and Marion Jones, who recruited a gang to take back her property from her husband.

An interesting, as well as informative read in the same vein as Maureen Waller’s The English Marriage and Kate Summerscale’s Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace, Nicolaou presents an eye-opening history of colorful characters and warring spouses engaged in extreme battles of the sexes.