Dutch Mercenaries in the Tsar’s Service: The Van Bockhoven Clan

Historians have pointed out that the Dutch played a key role in Europe’s Military Revolution. Neither the Dutch role as the foremost international arms traders of the seventeenth century nor the significance of Dutch officers in seventeenth-century militaries has been very much studied. This essay suggests that the Dutch were rather more influential in Russia’s adoption of some of the key innovations of the Military Revolution than the historiography of late Muscovy has acknowledged. It does this by investigating the importance for Russia’ military modernization of a Dutch officers’ clan, that of the van Bockhovens. They provide a telling case study of the extent of this Dutch influence.