While issues of marriage and divorce remain contentious in the Philippines, the history of marriage remains relatively unexplored. Marriage laws were introduced under Spanish colonialism, transforming indigenous practices of divorce, polyandry and polygamy; and for over 300 years Filipinos were subject to Iberian laws, and shared legal and cultural practices with Spain’s American colonies. Sacramental and monogamous marriage was inscribed as an ideal in colonial law, yet during the late Spanish colonial period, the law allowed some flexibility, and provided an opportunity for men or women in the Philippines to petition for the dissolution of a marriage. Indeed, hundreds of demandas (lawsuits) were filed concerning “Matrimonies,” “Adulteries,” “Divorces,” and “Concubinage.” in the civil and ecclesiastical courts of Manila. These fascinating cases provide a unique glimpse into the complexity of marital relationships in the Spanish Philippines, and the way women in particular used the courts to secure relief from unhappy marriages. The Catholic Church and Spanish State, which functioned as one under the Patronato Real, attempted to use reforms in marriage law to fashion a new sense of public morality among its subjects.

My research uses these court cases to explore marriage as a legal institution and a set of social practices, and to interrogate the way the Spanish used canon and civil law to shape private and public morality in Philippine society. In practice, the courts often adopted a more flexible approach to domestic partnerships than the letter of the law allowed, and the Spanish government oftentimes have been more concerned with preserving “moral peace” among the colonial population than in enforcing Catholic orthodoxy. These court cases show the contested nature of marriage and domestic relations, and the challenges posed by ordinary people to colonial law, revealing both legal and popular attitudes towards marriage in the colonial period. Although focusing on the colonial period, my work contributes to the current debates on marriage and divorce in the contemporary Philippines.