I was reading some about the French Dauphin and it seems crazy that the heir of the Kingdom would be granted a fiefdom that is technically part of an opposing country/empire (Holy Roman Empire). I have a few questions about how this would work.
Did they have voting rights to the Holy Roman Emperor?
If France and the HRE went to war, was he obligated to stay out of it, would the men in his domain be hesitant to help the French?
Wikipedia lists one of the instances of this causing issue as Charles VII marrying someone against his father's wishes, as it helped his position in Dauphine more than as a Frenchman. Are there any other issues that were raised because of this?
Many times the Dauphin was a child, who ruled in his stead? Was it a similar issue to when there was a regency for the Kingdom?
Thank you very much for your help/answers/anecdotes!
It's not crazy for the HRE, it was the norm. I can't answer your specific questions (except for number 1, to answer to which is 'no' and 4. The king of France ruled as the Dauphin when he had no eligible son, but the lands were still legally separate until they were eventually annexed by France) but I can tell you that the HRE wasn't a centralised Empire or State as the name would imply, the Emperor's powers were very limited and there were hundreds upon hundreds of these little States within it over the years that enjoyed varying levels of autonomy. The rules for this autonomy were known as 'Landeshoheit', to get more specific answers it'd be helpful to specify a time as the relationship between the Empire and the constituent States varied over the years.
Here's some sources
HRE be cray cray crazy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_in_the_Holy_Roman_Empire
List of electors, mostly limited to a small inner circle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_election
Bit of background on how the lands were acquired (they were sold to the French crown on certain conditions, including that they be kept legally separate from France.) http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/152427/Dauphine
Additional note - This medieval tradition of a Monarch or heir ruling lands separately still exists today. Queen Elizabeth II is Duke of Normandy in the Channel Islands (Duke, not Duchess) because William the Conqueror ruled lands in both England and France but never united them. If she was to loose one title she would still hold the other. An easy way to think about it is to imagine a person running two different companies, they're manager of both but the companies stay distinct.