Andries Bicker (Amsterdam, 1586 - Amsterdam?, 24 June 1652) was a wealthy merchant in Moscovy, a member of the vroedschap, the leader of the Arminians, an administrator of the VOC, representative of the States-General of the Netherlands and colonel in the Civic guard.
He controls the city's politics in close cooperation with his uncle Jacob Dircksz de Graeff and his brother Cornelis Bicker.
The Bicker family is one of the oldest patrician families of Amsterdam - consisting of Andries' father Gerrit, a grain merchant and beer brewer, Andries and his three brothers, Jacob, Jan and Cornelis, have a firm grip on world trade, trading in the East, the West, the North and the Mediterranean.
(His uncle Laurens Bicker is one of the first to trade on Guinea and seizes four Portuguese ships in 1604).
In 1646, seven members of the Bicker family, called the Bicker's league, simultaneously hold some political position or other.
The Bickers provide silver and ships to Spain, and are very much interested in ending the Eighty Years War.
This brings them in conflict with the stadtholder, some provinces, like Zeeland and Utrecht, and the Reformed preachers.
