Tuyll is the name of a noble Dutch family, with familial and historical links to England, whose full name is Van Tuyll van Serooskerken. Several knights, members of various courts, literary figures, generals, ambassadors, statesmen and explorers carried the family name. History 15th Century Traditionally, the Van Tuyll van Serooskerken family claimed to be descendants of a very old, Van Tuyll (van Bulckesteyn) family of ancient nobility from Guelders, documented to 1125 and extinct in 1673. This claim is based on among others the 1556 archive documenting the name change from Van Tuyll to van Serooskerken in the Zuylen castle (see under the Diplomas section), and is found continuously in all documents such as the 1603 charter they are from the same family (see below), the 1640 book 't Begin van Hollant in Dordrecht, page 306, by Johan van Beverwijck, the 1675 Rombout Verhulst monument to Hieronymus van Tuyll, the 1685 Batavia Illustrata of Simon van Leeuwen, the 1696 Nieuwe Cronyk Van Zeeland of Mattheus Smallegange, the 1822 recognition by the High Council of Nobility, three genealogies by van Spaen (1802), Rietstap (1887) and Polvliet (1894), the reference publication of the time, Jaarboek van den Nederlandschen adel, 6e Jaargang (1894) showing the full genealogy of the different branches, up to the first edition of the Adelsboek in 1906, but not in later modern editions. All reference works on Belle van Zuylen (Isabelle van Tuyll) support the van Tuyll van Bulckesteyn connection and so do French genealogists. However, there is no primary source archival evidence for this thesis apart from that cited above, and given that from 1483 to 1603 the Van Tuyll van Serooskerken family merely used the name of Van Serooskerke and from 1759 Van Serooskerken, and never the name Van Tuyll (except in the name change archive of 1556), most modern Dutch historians conclude that this is a later fabrication of more ancient noble roots for the family. In particular, Dr. J.G. Smit makes the hypothesis that Hendrik Van Tuyll van Serooskerken paid Willem Van Tuyl van Bulckesteyn to sign the 1603 charter that they share the same coat of arms and are of the same family. The family Van Serooskerken then started to use the name Van Tuyll van Serooskerken. Hendrik Van Tuyll van Serooskerken commissioned Hendrick Bloemaert for a series of portraits of his ancestors. The likenesses are invented as even the Orange-Nassau did not have