Knight Frans Banning Cocq (1600–1655?) was a burgemeester (mayor) of Amsterdam in the mid-17th century. He is best known as the central figure in Rembrandt's masterpiece The Night Watch.
Cocq was the only son of an Amsterdam pharmacist. He studied law in France but returned to Amsterdam and became captain of the militia there. In 1630 he married Maria Overlander van Purmerland, the only surviving child of Volkert Overlander, merchant, ship owner, knight, one of the founders of the Dutch East Trading Company and a few times burgemeester (mayor) of Amsterdam. When Volckert died, Banning Cocq inherited his properties north of Amsterdam along with the title Lord of Purmerland and Ilpendam and lord of the castle of Ilpenstein. In 1632 he became commissioner of a college and sometime around 1650 he was named burgemeester (mayor) of Amsterdam. He was also an advisor to his brothers in law Cornelis and Andries de Graeff, and died around 1655. Banning Cocq's tomb chapel is located in the Oude Kerk.
Banning Cocq is known today primarily for a painting commissioned from Rembrandt van Rijn which shows Cocq and the company of civil guards he commanded. Although known as The Night Watch, this is not the original title; at that time it was in fact unusual to title paintings but if indeed it had a name, the more correct one would be "The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch". The painting is notable, among other things, for its huge size: approximately 3.35 m x 4.26 m (11 ft by 14 ft).
| Preceded by Geertruid Hooft |
15.th Lord of the Free and high Lordship Purmerland and Ilpendam 1637–1655 |
Succeeded by Maria Overlander van Purmerland |