In 1769, Bailiff Jean-Baptiste Sadoul of Guttenberg summed up the ambiguities of his position, the most important seigneurial office in Alsace. As bailiff, he drew “his condition and his power from the duke” who appointed him, yet he was also “proud to be a loyal subject of His Majesty.” As paradoxical as it might first sound, Sadoul derived competencies from, and was obligated to, both the duke of Pfalz-Zweibrücken and the king; he was an Amtmann and a bailli, and these were his “two bodies.” Sadoul understood the power of his office and took to heart his responsibilities to each ruler. It was, perhaps, a self-serving ideal. Sadoul's policy was surprisingly simple if difficult to maintain in everyday practice: how might the bailiff loyally follow the orders of the king and the duke while simultaneously protecting the prerogatives of both, sometimes each against the other? He must be the king's man, but also the duke's. He was, as were bailiffs throughout Alsace, the creature of two masters.

Ducal and provincial administrations both depended upon the bailiff and the other officials of the seigneurial court to connect them to Alsace's local communities. Although each possessed specific powers in particular spheres—and these were already partially delineated in the bailiff's instructions—gray areas remained. The bailiff was responsible for integrating the demands and expectations of each political authority without having his work for one bleed over into the other's realm. It was a circle that could not always be squared. Yet this duality, despite its seeming incongruence, formed the cornerstone of the Alsatian political system in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Because both duke and king invested heavily in maintaining this system, it proved enduringly stable despite the apparent inconsistencies.

French policy essentially co-opted seigneurial officials and the Alsatian lords who appointed them into the ongoing process of establishing French rule. By participating in the appointment of officials active in the French administration, the Birkenfelds and other Alsatian lords and magistrates re-affirmed French sovereignty. They also stood to gain, because their appointments provided them considerable, if indirect, influence over the execution of French policy.