Francisca de Pedraza

Francisca de Pedraza was an orphan from Alcalá de Henares, raised in a convent girls' college. In 1612 she married Jerónimo de Jaras, who beat her from their wedding night. She appealed to civil and ecclesiastical courts; early rulings ordered him to change his conduct, but she continued to seek a separation.

In 1624 the papal nuncio referred her case to the University of Alcalá's tribunal. Its rector granted her separation, the return of her dowry and a restraining order, one of the first such rulings for an abused wife in Spain.