← Back to the front page

Oddities, Misconceptions, and Facts About the Middle Ages that Made it So Delightfully Strange

Khalid Elhassan April 6, 2022 36 min

Middle Ages Facts - Disposal of Black Death victims — Disposal of Black Death victims. Science

In Middle Ages Europe, getting a divorce was next to impossible, and the only way out of a marriage was the death of a spouse or annulment. A woman who sought annulment often had to bring a case based on her man’s inability to “perform his duties” in bed. That often involved an awkward public examination in court, in which the husband would have to demonstrate that he could get an erection. Alternatively, the estranged couple could settle matters by fighting a divorce duel. Below are thirty things about that and other fascinating but lesser-known Middle Ages facts.

30. Getting Out of a Marriage Was Really Hard in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages erection examinations were awkward. Narratively

In pre-modern times, divorce was frowned upon to such an extent that it was just about impossible to secure one. King Henry VIII for example spent years trying to get the Pope to annul his marriage. When that failed, he took England out of the Catholic fold, started his own Church of England with himself at its head, and got out of his marriage that way.

Middle Ages Facts - Divorce duel illustration — Divorce duel illustration from a Middle Ages combat manual. Wiktenauer

For those who were not kings, things could be even trickier. They were especially tricky for women: in France, for example, just about the only legal grounds to get out of a marriage was if a hubby couldn’t get it up. To defend themselves from charges of impotence, defendant husbands would have to demonstrate that they could get an erection. In a courtroom. In front of witnesses and legal experts. To the satisfaction of “honest women” appointed by the authorities to check. Yeah – no pressure or anything.

Middle Ages divorce duel illustration. Wiktenauer

However, there was an alternative to making a husband prove his virility in public by “expel[ing] reproductive fluids on demand“. The couple could instead fight a divorce duel. Such bouts were common enough to warrant an entire chapter in a popular Middle Ages dueling manual.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.