Protectorate of a destroyed faction?

[Elshar]

I had this bug happen to me last night. Poland-Lithuania was fighting a long war with Austria, Russia and myself for most of my game (from about 1710-1740ish). Somehow along the way they managed to subjugate a few minors into protectorates. However, after Russia took the Pole's last province and destroying the faction, the minors were still under the protectorate of Poland and I couldn't use any of the Alliance/Protectorate treaties with them.

I think I have a save of it too if anyone wants to take a look. In the end I figured I could just declare war and then sue for peace but that didn't work and I ended up 'accidentally' destroying a few of them. Oops.

[FSMTeapot]

I had exactly the same problem, again with Poland-Lithuania (protectorate being Saxony). They were easy enough to destroy though.

[Switch]

I noticed that when fighting a war with my rebellious Thirteen Colonies as the British, Thirteen Colonies units and cities on the campaign map still had (Protectorate) after 'Thirteen Colonies' on their labels. Didn't stop me smashing them to pieces, however!