This study retraces the history of the ‘foreign service’ of the Netherlands between 1814 and 1946 in the light of bureaucratic, professional and democratic developments. The trio recruiting, selection and training on the one hand and the diptych ability and suitability on the other serve as guidelines. The year 1946 constitutes a logical conclusion of this period owing to the formation of the new Foreign Service, which replaced the former separate services for diplomats, consuls and interpreters. By contrast, the year 1814 is of a more symbolic mature, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the ‘foreign service’ had been re-established following the regained independence of the nation. After all, the bureaucratic and professional processes that pertained to the handling of the Netherlands’ external relations had already been put in motion during the Batavian-French period. During the first fifteen years of the reign of King Willem I, various circumstances encouraged the process of making the ‘foreign service’ more bureaucratic and professional. The energetic manager Willem I had high expectations of his kingdom as a (semi-)great power while his competent and long-serving minister for Foreign Affairs, Verstolk van Soelen, did his utmost to improve the recruiting, selection and training of future diplomats. That the eventual results were meagre resulted largely from the separation of Belgium in 1830 and the following general political, social and financial depression. However, the successors of minister Verstolk van Soelen could fall back upon the work he had already done. For example, minister De la Sarraz was succesful in establishing an entrance examination for the diplomatic service in 1846. But as a consequence of the accesion to the throne of Willem III in 1849, who was less interested in affairs of state than his father and grandfather, and the dominant position of the liberal movement following the constitutional amendment in 1848, the ‘foreign service’ was stagnated for years on end. Only by the middle of ...