ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about the life of composite portrait, Colonel William Allen, a mercenary officer who, like Gordon, was recruited from abroad. It presents two types of foreign mercenary officers: Captain Edvart and Colonel William Allen who was active in seventeenth-century Russia. Colonel William Allen is a composite character representing a type of mercenary officer: those recruited from abroad, who served in the Tsar's army either for the duration or for a portion of the Thirteen Years War, or for their entire lives. The events and experiences described by Colonel Allen and Captain Edvart are historical, not fabricated, but did not happen to the historical Allen and Edvart. Some of the opinions attributed to Allen's character are distilled from his reading of the sources and do not derive from statement in the historical record. Informative discussions of the foreign mercenary officers serving in seventeenth-century Russia published in English include the works of Richard Hellie, Carol Belkin Stevens, and Chester Dunning.
