Old-fashioned cuckoldry 300 years ago was definitely a female-led marriage, and the whole village knew that the husband was being cucked. They took every opportunity to mock him in public, even to the point of making him wear the cuckold horns in a parade.
The essential point was that a cuckold in those days knew that no other woman for 100 miles round would consider having sex with him, or even marry him, because EVERY MAN, WOMAN (and I dare say most kids) knew he was (inadequate in bed). He still had to provide financial support to his wife and kids, so he might as well put up with the adultery because some love was better than celibacy from being an "ostracised divorced man" that everyone would smirk at.
You are not a true cuckold if your wife does not lead the marriage and notice that you obey her implicitly.
In wartime, a wife ran the home whilst her husband was away at frequent wars. She was self-sufficient without him - but took sex whenever it was available from other men. What she often discovered was that other men often were better in bed than her husband, and of course "she became addicted to these better lovers" and often got pregnant to them.
Religion tried to stop women having more than one sexual partner, so they would never discover that one man might be better in bed that another. War changed that, because it provided opportunities for horny housewives whose husbands were hundreds of miles away to experiment with different penises to find the hidden truth. And when they discovered the truth, they decided it wasn't fair to be stuck with an "under-performing penis". So they used their sexual power over men to get the sex they believed they deserved, and they knew their cuck husband would feel too humiliated to object. In fact, humiliation actually fuelled a desire for an under-performing husband to try and "make up for his indequacy" by becoming more supportive of his wife, accepting her right to get extra sex to keep her happy and contented and less likely to throw dishes at him.
If you do not agree with me, then you are using a modern version of what a 'cuckold' is.
I have talked to hundreds of older men, and they all seem to agree that when a wife is happy, the marriage is going well. They agree that the hand the rocks the cradle, also controls what happens in the marriage.
Historians have written many papers about the time women led marriages were the "norm" in early times, and since feminism was introduced in the 1960's, there is a powerful trend appearing as women are taking over more roles in society......on the way back to female-led marriages with extra-marital sex becoming fashionable again, and religion stepping back into the shadows.
Most cucking these days seem more to be an agreement for wife to be poly and hubby to be monogamous, so it is a watered down version of true cuckholdry where a husband faces constant daily humilation from neighbours and family and strangers who enjoying making cucky wish there was a crack in the ground he could hide in.
Old fashioned cuckolds did not have support groups like cuckold,com. They had no one to share their painful emotions with.
Large numbers of people now organise their own marriage vows to reflect what they feel they can promise to comply with.