Until 1795 Bokhoven was a quasi independent state. In the fourteenth century
Bokhoven Castle had been built in the village. It became the center of the Lordship (later county) of Bokhoven, which was a loan of the
Prince-Bishopric of Liège. After the Dutch revolt in 1579 Bokhoven became an
enclave of the
Holy Roman Empire within the
Dutch Republic. The counts remained
Roman Catholic after the
Protestant Reformation. This way the county provided an opportunity for Catholic inhabitants living in the surrounding areas under the control of the
Calvinists to attend Catholic services. In 1795 the Lordship Bokhoven was annexed by the
First French Republic. In 1800 it was sold to the
Batavian Republic, a precursor state of the present
Kingdom of the Netherlands in which Bokhoven became a municipality. In 1922 it was annexed by the municipality
Engelen, which again was annexed by ’s-Hertogenbosch in 1971. In earlier times a settlement of farmers and fishermen, the present population of the village, about three hundred people, consists mostly of
middle class commuters. ==References==