Sir Matthew Hale, 17th century Lord Chief Justice of England mb-height 2319 English stage actress Ellen Terry

English stage actress Ellen Terry as Catherine of Aragon in Shakespeare's Henry VIII

London showing fishermen on boats and figures on the quayside

novelist and eclectic scholar

Circa September 1993

Sir Matthew Hale, 17th century Lord Chief Justice of England mb-height 2319 English stage actress Ellen TerrySir Matthew Hale, 17th century Lord Chief Justice of England, (1808). It was Hale's (1609 1676) opinion that The husband cannot be guilty of a rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract, the wife hath given herself in kind unto the husband which she cannot retract. His statement was partly responsible for the fact that, until recently, spousal rape was not recognized as a crime in most common