Related
1678] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 107 delivered to Gordon.
136 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 Queens hand; whereat his Majestic smileing
1686] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 143 Gordon, and as much to the Lord Chancellour
1692] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 179 Patrick Gordon of Cults
170 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1690 delighted that he made the Boyars
110 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 I gave up my petition
1689] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 165 memory, the younger Czar
116 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 a third, on the way to Konigsberg
186 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1697 put out the white flag
1690] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 107 their arrival was announced. Gordon was at once admitted to His Majesty
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
1690] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 107
their arrival was announced. Gordon was at once admitted to His Majesty's presence, ami
ordered to keep by his side, while the other officers remained with their regiments outside the
raonasteiy.
Four days after, Peter entered Moscow in triumph, and the trial of the conspirators began.
Schaklowitoj, the second fiivourite, as Gordon calls him, was tortured and beheaded along with
many others; the Czar's reluctance to shed blood having been overcome by the Patriarch.
Golizyu himself was banished, and his estates confiscated, his life being spared through the in-
tercession of his kinsman, who was Peters chief adviser. The Princess Sophia was sent to a
convent, where she died after a seclusion of fifteen years. And the imbecile Ivan agreed that the
sole rule of the empire should be in the hands of his younger and more energetic brother. The
revolution was complete, and Gordon, who had done so much to bring it about, enjoyed a
fair share of its advantages.
A.D. 1690.
On the eighth of January, the Governor of Terki, Andrei Besobraszow, who had employed January 8
magic to regain the favour of the Czar, whom he had displeased, was put to death ; and two
others, whom he had instigated to bewitch the Czar, were burned. Ten of his servants were
beaten with the knout, and sent to Siberia. One of the culprits being asked at his trial what
means of witchcraft he used, answered, that placing himself to windward of the person whom he
wished to propitiate, he made a wind blow which gained the end desired.
It is noted, on the tenth of January, that the mother in-law of the Boyar, Andrei Iwanowitsch January 1
Golizyn, having spoken against the government of the Czar and his friends, in the hearing of the
Boyar and others, the Boyar and his friends were banished, their property confiscated, and
some of their servants knouted.
The next day, Gordon was at the Kremlin, and saw the Czar, who was making ready January I
fireworks.
On the sixteenth of January, Gordon dined at the Kremlin. The fireworks were set off, and January L
were successful.
Three days afterwards, Gordon was again at court, and accompanied the Czar to the country January 1'
house of a Boyar, where they were entertained at a sumptuous noon-day meal. They next went
to a summer residence of the Czar, where they set off fireworks, and returning to the Boyar's
house, had another sumptuous banquet.
The entry in next day's journal is that he was ill of the last night's debauch, and had to keep January 2(
his bed till afternoon.
He dined at the Kremlin on the twenty-first of January, and was there again next day, when January 21
his son-in-law burned his face in making fireworks.
On the twenty-third of January, he was at the funeral of Colonel Bockhoven's wife. He January 22
went into the city next day, but did not go to the Kremlin, as it is not permitted to appear January 24
before the Czar for three days after being at a burial or seeing a corpse.
Gordon was brought up and remained a lifelong Roman Catholic, at a time when the Church was being persecuted in Scotland. At age of fifteen, he entered the Jesuit college at Braunsberg, East Prussia, then part of Poland. In 1661, after many years experiences as a soldier of fortune, he joined the Russian army under Tsar Aleksei I, and in 1665 was sent on a special mission to England. After his return, he distinguished himself in several wars against the Turks and Tatars in southern Russia. In recognition of his service he was promoted to major-general in 1678, was appointed to the high command at Kiev in 1679, and in 1683 was made lieutenant-general. In 1687 and 1689 he took part in expeditions against the Tatars in the Crimea, being made a full general. Later in 1689, a revolution broke out in Moscow, and with the troops under his command, Gordon virtually decided events in favor of Peter the Great against the Regent, Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna. Consequently, he was for the remainder of his life in high favor with the Tsar, who confided to him the command of his capital during his absence from Russia. In 1696, Gordon's design of a "moveable rampart" played a key role in helping the Russians take Azov. One of Gordon's convinced the Tsars to establish the first Roman Catholic church and school in Muscovy, of which he remained the main benefactor and headed the Catholic community in Russia until his death. For his services his second son James, brigadier of the Russian army, was created Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1701. At the end of his life the Tsar, who had visited Gordon frequently during his illness, was with him when he died, and with his own hands closed his eyes. General Gordon left behind him a uniquely detailed diary of his life and times, written in English. This is preserved in manuscript in the Russian State Military Archive in Moscow. Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries (1635–1699) was printed, under the editorship of Joseph Robertson, for the Spalding Club, at Aberdeen, Scotland, 1859.