Earl Ronijan

Earl Ronijan was a fairly minor ruler whose territory was annexed by the Kingdom of Dorland. As is usually the case, since he didn't fight this, they rewarded him by letting him keep his title as long as he swore sovereignty to the King of Dorland. The problem was, his wife refused to go along with this, so he tried to divorce her. She came from a powerful family that wouldn't allow this, so he just kicked her off his estate (she took their children with her) and took one of the servants as a mistress. She bore him a couple of children that he officially recognized as his. He legally couldn't marry their mother, but he made an appeal to the king in which he pointed out that his bastards were being raised loyal to the king, and his legitimate children weren't, and what could the king do about this? The king allowed him to rewrite the succession laws, and his oldest son by his mistress succeeded him. His wife was not happy about this, and neither was his oldest son by his wife, but their family didn't have enough pull to fight the king on this.