Related
1692] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 175 TO HIS SON JOHN. Mosco, January 11, 1692.
168 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1690 The twenty-eiglith of January
1692] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 179 Patrick Gordon of Cults
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
1689] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 165 memory, the younger Czar
332. Hussar of the Georgian regiment, from 1741 to 1761.
42 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1661 misfortune
154 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 Alexander Gordon, to the Earle of Middleton and Esquire Cooke
1691] DIARY OF PATEICK GORDON. 173 [A.D. 1691. On the second of January, Gordon was at Preobraschenskoje
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
1691] DIARY OF PATEICK GORDON. 173
[A.D. 1691.
On the second of January, Gordon was at Preobraschenskoje, and, when taking leave was January 2.
ordered by the Czar to make ready dinner and supper for his Majesty and the court next day.
The Czar came about ten o'clock in the morning, and immediately sat down to table. He January ^
was accompanied by eighty-five persons of distinction, with about a hundred servants. They
were all veiy merry, both at dinner and at supper, and spent the night as if in camp.
On the fourth of January, his Majesty and the whole company dined with Lefort. January 4
Gordon notes, on the nineteenth of January, that 'the Hollands Resident was prevailed upon January 1
to receive the pretended King "William his letter to their Tzaarish Majesties ;• and, five days after- January 2
wards, that ' the Hollands Resident gave up the letter from the Prince of Orange, giveing notice
of his being advanced to the crowne of Great Britaine.'
On the sixth of March, the Czar made Gordon a gift of silver plate and other confiscated March 6.
property, worth in all a thousand rubles.
Towards the end of May, he again wrote to the Duke of Gordon.] May 22.
FOR HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GORDON.
Mosco, 22 Maij, 1691.
May it please your Grace,
I received, by the last ordinary, your Graces most kind and
obli<'-eing letter, dated at London the twelfth April, an7io 1690, being sent
from Varsow by Harie Gordon. Haveing heard of your Grace being in
Paris I did writt to your Grace the fyfteenth of November Last yeare, witli
an enclosed, being a returne to the Earle of Melfort. I shall be glad to hear
your Grace hath received it. Your Graces behaviour all along is highly
commendable, and in myne opinion, and all honest mens, you have done
very wysely. Wee have nothing here but as represented to us by the Dutch
and Hollands Gazettes, which are partiall ; yet wee may collect that Orange
is not so sctled but he may be removed. For I cannot imagine but that, when
the EngUsh see their purses emptyed, their trade ruined, and their necks
bowing under a forreigne yoke, and small hopes of prevailing against the
Most Christian King, a sense of loyalty and generosity, at least of their
owne ruine and slavery, may prevaill so as to move the most generous of
them to take other measures. There is nothing here more highly commended
in the Most Christian King, as his generous and most Christian resolution,
not to give eare to any peace untill his Sacred Majestic, our gracious King,
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.