Van Halen became a military adventurer throughout Europe and went on an 18-month tenure as a colonel in the Russian Caucasus Dragoon Regiment until his removal by Tsar Alexander I of Russia.

In 1803, he left Cádiz as a Spanish Navy cadet on the frigate Anfitrite headed for La Habana, Cuba and Veracruz, Mexico.

He met with various Russian dignitaries including Prince Pyotr Mikhailovich Volkonsky, close advisor to Tsar Alexander I and chief of the general staff from 1815 to 1823.

Van Halen visited the Tsar's assistant, Prince Dmitriy Vladimirovich Golitsyn, who had fought bravely during the Napoleonic Wars and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, governing Moscow for 25 years.

Supported by Betancourt, who was trusted by other Russian military leaders, Van Halen was appointed colonel of the Caucasus Dragoon Regiment in Tbilisi, Georgia.

In 1831, as a "Condottiere" in the 15th-century Italian style, he formed a military brigade of Belgian subjects to defend Portuguese Liberals from the prosecutions of the absolutist King Miguel I of Portugal.

Van Halen returned to Spain in February 1833 after the death of King Fernando VII, but he would travel and make brief stays in Belgium and England from 1835 to 1838.

After her death, Van Halen married Clotilde Butler y Abrines, the daughter of a Spanish Navy frigate captain, who died after 1854.