Related
1692] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 179 Patrick Gordon of Cults
170 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1690 delighted that he made the Boyars
186 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1697 put out the white flag
1690] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 171 Most Christian King
1689] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 165 memory, the younger Czar
202. UNDER-OFFICER of the Artillery Regiment, from 1720 to 1728
42 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1661 misfortune
1686] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 163 and equity which I had on my syde
174 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1692 be restored. As for Harie Gordon
1699] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 193 ' A number of Strelitzes were executed
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
1699] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 193
' A number of Strelitzes were executed. September 3
' T was at Preobraschensk, and saw the crocodile, swordfish, and other curiosities, which his October 3.
M^esty had brought from England and Holland.
' Orders were issued not to give support to any of the wives or children of the executed November 1'
Strelitzes.'
The Diary closes on the last day of this year, with these devout aspirations ; — ' Almighty December 31
God be praised for his gracious long suffering towards mo in sparing my life so long. Grant,
gracious God, that I may make a good use of the time that thou mayest be pleased yet to grant
me for repentance. This year I have felt a sensible decrease of health and strength. Yet thy
will be done, gracious God !'
These were the last words that Gordon was to enter in his journal of many years. His
strength was now fast failing, and during the following summer he became so weak that he was
unable to leave his bed. He died at seven o'clock in the morning of the twenty-ninth of
November, 1699. The Czar, who had visited him five times in his illness, and had been twice
with him during the night, stood weeping by his bed as he drew his last breath; and the
eyes of him who had left Scotland a poor unfriended wanderer, were closed by the hands of an
Emperor.
Peter himself ordered the funeral procession, and took his place in its long line, accompanied
by all the pomp of his empire, and followed by the representatives of most of the great powers
of Eiirope. The body was carried on the shoulders of twenty-eight colonels; two generals
supported the footsteps of his widow, and twenty ladies, the wives of high Muscovite digni-
taries, walked in her train. The religious obsequies were performed by the priests of the
church which he loved, in the first chapel of stone which the Roman Catholics were suffered to
raise in Moscow. It was built chiefly by his bounty, and his tomb was dug before its high altar,
in a vault, where this inscription may still be read :
SACEAE TZAREAE MAJESTATIS MILITIAE GENERALIS
PATRIGIUS LEOPOLDUS GORDON
NATUS ANNO DOMINI 1635 DIE 31 MARTII
DENATUS ANNO DOMINI 1699 DIE 29 NOVEMBRIS
REQUIESCAT IN PACE
2c
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.