> English common law before the reign of Charles II permitted a man to give his wife "moderate correction", but no "rule of thumb" (whether called by this name or not) has ever been the law in England.[2][8][d]

In other words, beating of wives was historically an acceptable practice under English Common law, notwithstanding my mistakenly using a debunked anecdote.

Thank you for "moderately correcting" me.

(edit: And to further the original point that historically English Common law allowed for wife-beating, from wikipedia:

> Prior to the mid-1800s, most legal systems viewed wife beating as a valid exercise of a husband's authority over his wife.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_violence#History)