The principle of 'blood vengeance,' originating from Germanic peoples and legitimizing family retaliation, found its echo in the Spanish Penal Code of 1870. This provision permitted fathers and husbands to kill their adulterous daughters or wives, as well as the involved men, without facing legal consequences.

After a period without this provision during the Republics, it was reintroduced in 1963 under the Franco dictatorship as 'uxoricide for honor.' The Penal Code of 1944, in its Article 428, stipulated penalties ranging from exile to exemption from punishment for a husband who killed or injured his wife in the act of adultery, reflecting clear legal inequality based on supposed male 'honor.'

This concept had already been legislated during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera but was repealed with the Second Spanish Republic. The 1944 Code also introduced the crime of 'abandonment of the home,' punishing women who left the marital domicile without permission, and false accusations were not uncommon for control purposes.

The figure of the patriarch and the marital license requirement persisted until the reform of the Civil Code in 1975. This modification advanced towards equality, eliminating the wife's duty of obedience and establishing that marriage did not restrict the legal capacity of either spouse. However, husbands retained parental authority and the administration of marital assets.