Related
1699] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 193 ' A number of Strelitzes were executed
116 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 a third, on the way to Konigsberg
1692] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 179 Patrick Gordon of Cults
1689] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 165 memory, the younger Czar
186 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1697 put out the white flag
168 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1690 The twenty-eiglith of January
136 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 Queens hand; whereat his Majestic smileing
170 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1690 delighted that he made the Boyars
42 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1661 misfortune
1690] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 169 regiments in line three deep
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
1690] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 169
regiments in line three deep, the first rank kneeling, the second stooping, the third standing.
In this position they fired all at once, while their drums were beat, and banners waved. The
Czar was so delighted with all this, that he ordered it to be repeated again and again.
On the twenty-fourth, and, again on the twenty-sixth, of February, there were displays of Feb. 24, '.
fireworks, under direction of the Czar. A five-pound rocket went wrong, and carried off the
head of a Boyar. Gordon did not get home till morning.
Two days afterwards, Gordon should have dined at the Kremlin, but the Patriarch protested Februarj
against the presence of a foreigner.
The next day, the Czar made him be invited to a country house, where His Majesty and March 1.
Gordon dined at a table by themselves. Peter kept talking to him all the way home. Gordon
confesses that next day he was not very well.
Towards the middle of March, he notes the receipt of his half year's pay, amounting to 271 March 10
rubles, 6 alten, 4 dangi.
On the thirtieth of April, the Czar, with the Boyars and chief men of the court, supped with April 30.
Gordon, and were well satisfied .
In the beginning of May, he writes to the Earl of Melfort : ' We have had a change at court. May 8.
The Princess and her favourites were overthrown, and the younger Czar and his party assumed
the government. The elder Czar remains as formerly. 1 have got this court to own still his
Sacred Majesty, and not to hear of any other.'
There was a great feast in honour of the Czar's birthday, on the thirtieth of May. After May 30.
dinner, the Czar himself banded a glass of brandy to each guest.
At a mock assault, on the second of June, a fire pot, as it is called, burst close by the Czar June 2.
and burned his face. Gordon and other bystanders were slightly wounded.
On the twentieth of July, there was a division among the clergy regarding the election of a June 20.
Patriarch. The higher clergy, with the Czar Peter, were for one Marcellus, but he was opposed
by the inferior clergy, and the dowager Czarina, because, as they said, he had too much know-
ledge, and would, they feared, favour the Eoman Catholics and other sectaries.
Along with the Czar, Gordon rode to Troitzka on the twenty-fourth of July, and dined with July 24.
the Boyar Boris Alexeiewitsch Golizyn, where there was the greatest abundance of everything.
The next morning Gordon had a severe colic, which lasted for four hours, with violent July 25.
vomiting and diarrhoea. The Czar himself came into Gordon's room, and promised, as soon as
he got back to Kolomenskoje, to send him medicine. It came about one o'clock, and gave
him such relief, that two hours afterwards he was able to ride to Kolomenskoje, a distance of
fourteen versts.
On the fourteenth of August, Gordon dined with the Czar at the house of a Boyar. August U
The Czar and others made very merry in Gordon's house on the twenty -second of August. August 2'J
The election of a Patriarch was made on the next day. Marcellus was not chosen. The August 23
Czar wished him, but he was hated by the old Boyars and the generality of the clergy for his
learning and other good qualities.
On the morrow, there was a great feast, with fireworks in the evening. The Czar was so August 27
Z
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.