Prior to this, all marriages in the country were religious ones, established under law with Philip II's July 1564 Royal Decree, based on the Council of Trent.
[2] On 2 March 1938, Franco declared that in all Nationalist territories lawsuits seeking legal separation or divorce were to be suspended.
[3][4][5][1] The 23 September 1939 law provided that in cases when women requested and received divorces as a result of allegations of mistreatment, the husband could force the wife to remarry.
[4][7] The 26 October 1956 Decree of the Modification of the Regulation of the Civil Registry of 1870 was a result of the Spanish and Vatican 27 August 1953 Concordat.
Women found themselves there for a wide variety of offenses including infidelity, divorce or lesbian relationships.
"[1] The 22 May 1969 Decree of the Regulation of the Civil Registry made it easier for couples to marry without the need to prove they were not practicing Roman Catholics.
[1] Ana María Pérez del Campo publicly announced her intention to separate from her husband of four years starting in 1961.
Another way a Catholic divorce could occur was known as petrino, a similar formula created by Pope Pius XI.
Consequently, they were mostly available only to the rich, the most famous instance of this nullification involving Isabel Preysler and Carmencita Martínez Bordiú.
[14] Ahead of the first democratic elections, in 1977 following Franco's death, Spaniards overwhelmingly supported the legalizing of divorce.
[15] Catholic canonical law, which applied in Francoist Spain and during the democratic transition, did not end until the Spanish constitution was adopted in 1978.
[1] As a European Christian Democratic party, the UCD opposed the legalization of divorce, believing in what they saw as "the preservation of the family".
Most of the independents in 1976-1977 were right wing, with the primary exception of Adolfo Suárez who supported the legalization of divorce.
[16] The Cortes of 1977 had to try to find a way to navigate the demands of the newly liberated left, who wanted to see reforms like the legalization of abortion and divorce, with the Catholic Church who opposed both.
The last time the state had been in conflict with the Church was in 1931, with the founding of the Second Republic and no one wanted to see renewed political violence.
[16] One of the reasons UCD went into decline after the 1977 elections was that the party was forced to take positions on major issues of the day, including divorce, abortion and the use of public money for private schools.
A compromise was reached on divorce that would see the issue addressed in later legislation through the text of Article 32.2 which stated, "The law will regulate the forms of matrimony… [and] the causes of separation and dissolution."
[17] The November 1979 XXXII Conferencia Episcopal advised that the Church did not want to interfere in the ability of legislators to conduct their business.
Monsignor Jubany from Barcelona made a final request in meeting with members of the Cortes, namely that divorce should be rendered costly as a means of prevention.
[13] Minister of Justice Francisco Fernández successfully fought the inclusion of a hardness clause in divorce legislation.
[13] The issue of passing divorce legislation came to a head in 1981, pitting the Catholic Church more visibly against Spain's leftist elements.
The new Pope, John Paul II, appointed a conservative Nuncio in Madrid who would speak much more openly about his political opposition to government reforms on the issue.
[16] At the same time UCD Minister of Justice Iñigo Cavero was replaced by the more liberal social democrat Francisco Fernández Ordóñez who altered the text of the proposed bill in order to make it be more liberal, despite opposition from Christian democrats who preferred Fernández Ordóñez's text.
[18] Ana María Pérez del Campo, the president of a feminist organization, said of the Fernández Ordoñez's actions, "The Church offered fierce resistance.
Ibars had a religious divorce granted in April 1980 from the Ecclesiastical Court of Santander, and the couple had no children.
Rafael Hueso was the first man in Catalonia to be granted a divorce, legally terminating his relationship with his wife from whom he had been separated for 36 years in mid-October 1981.