Lionheart, just to nitpick your nitpicking. (Of course, no offense intended.)
Although your quick summary of 2,000 years of history is mainly correct, it leaves out much subtlety. For example, although the property laws you suggest for the Romans is true for unmarried women, once a woman was a widow she was able to marry pretty much whoever she wanted at that stage, or remain unmarried assuming she wished to and had sufficient monies; also, divorce was rather easy to come by. Both of these differ severely from Christian Europe during the middle ages. Although the 'publicized' rationale for Henry VIII's defection from Catholicism was his wish for a male child which Catherine couldn't give him, the desire for the riches of the Catholic landholdings and the paucity of his treasury may have been as much or more of the impetus.
History is very subtle, and should be treated very carefully.