Client Kingdoms: confused by the concept.

[Didz]

About 16 turns ago I got the following Diplomatic Report.

This clearly states that France and the HRE have become client kingdoms.

I'm not sure if this is meant to imply that they are client kingdoms of each other, or one of the other, or that they are both client kingdoms of someone else.

The faction overview shows the HRE as a vassal of Denmark, but makes no mention of France as a vassal of anyone. Not only that but the HRE seems to have its own independant set of allies (Milan, Byzantine, Russia, Denmark, and Hungary) which is quite different to Denmarks (England, Venice and Poland)

On a secondary point: Can anyone confirm what impact vassalage has on Faction Goals and diplomacy, for example, if Scotland were to make England a vassal state would that satisfy their faction goal for the Short Campaign or does elimination mean exactly that, also is is possible to declare war on a vassal without going to war with its protector?