CLASSIC: English Men Used to Sell Their Wives
Ridiculous History
iHeartPodcasts
4.2 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 12 January 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
In late 17th-century England, it was almost impossible for anyone outside of the upper class to successfully get a divorce -- the process was expensive and required approval from both the church and the government. As a result, some couples agreed to end their unhappy marriages through a bizarre practice known as 'wife selling'. And, unfortunately, it's exactly what it sounds like.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | fellow ridiculous historians, we're returning with our regular classic episode. |
| 0:05.5 | And boy, this one threw us for a loop. |
| 0:09.0 | Take my wife. |
| 0:10.3 | Seriously. |
| 0:11.3 | Take her. |
| 0:12.5 | Oh, gosh. |
| 0:14.0 | Yeah. |
| 0:15.0 | Take her, but baby. |
| 0:16.5 | Yeah. |
| 0:17.0 | In 17th century England, it was so incredibly difficult for everybody who was not a 1%er to get a divorce. |
| 0:27.3 | You had to get the government to say yes. |
| 0:29.1 | You had to get the church. |
| 0:30.3 | The annulment was much in demand. |
| 0:33.3 | So as a result, some couples agreed to persist in unhappy marriages through a bizarre practice known as wife selling. |
| 0:42.8 | Not swapping. |
| 0:44.0 | Selling. |
| 0:45.5 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:48.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:51.0 | Ridiculous History is a production of IHeart Radio. |
| 1:23.6 | Thank you. Ridiculous History is a production of IHeart Radio. I've often thought that every single romantic relationship is like a country all its own, |
| 1:29.2 | with its own unique rules, its own unique social mores and so on. And everybody else is, to some degree or another, an outsider. But whenever we talk about relationships in general, |
| 1:35.8 | we run into some strange, complicated, and ridiculous things. Hi, I'm Ben. Hey, Ben. I'm Noel. |
... |
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