Related
1661-2] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 63 The Boyar, Ella Danielovitz Miloslawsky, mustered six hundred souldiers
42 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1661 misfortune
126 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 religion* At night wee cast anchor
150 DIAEY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 Nethermuir. I went thereafter to the Links
1661] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 47 good earnest to consider how I might ridd myself of this countrey
170 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1690 delighted that he made the Boyars
152 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 et Magnorum Ducura Johaiinls Alexiades
1692] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 179 Patrick Gordon of Cults
136 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 Queens hand; whereat his Majestic smileing
52 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1661 The Boyar Elia Danielovits Miloslawskj
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
52 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1661
The Boyar Elia Danielovits Miloslawskj mustered our regiment, and
p-ave six hundred of them to a Golova,* ncnvly created, to be Streltsees.
The Golova was called Nikifor Kolobuf. The sojours grieved exceedinuly
hereat, and many of them rann away.
My landlord continuing his solliciting to be freed of me out of his house,
a writer very well accoutred, and attended by twenty fellowes called Trub-
nikes, such as are called by us catchpoles, came of the court office, haveinu-
a written order in his hand to remove me out of my quarters to another.
I bein"- at dinner, and he, admitted into the roome, began very uncivilly
to command me to be gone. I desireing him to shew his order, he
told me he would not entrust me with it, because I had kept or torne the
two former ; and I telling him, I would not be gone except he shew me the
order he commanded some of the catchpoles, who were gott into the roome
with him, to carry out my trunkes ; and he himself layd hold of one of the
rewiment coUours, which were on the wall, to bring it out, which incensed
me so being heated befor by his uncivill behaviour, that getting up, by the
help of two officers (who were at dinner with me) and my servants, I drove
him and his rude attendants out of the roome, and downe staires, where
they rallying with these below, essayed to ascend the staires againe by
force. But wee, being on the toppe of the staires, easily repulsed them,
they haveing no weapons but staves and sticks, and wee the staffes of the
collours, which at the driveing of them out wee had laid hold on. But
some sojours by this noise being come together, and seeing this, needed no
watchword or command to fall on ; for, immediatly, with their fists, and such
clubs or cudgels as they could gett, they so exercized these rude guests, that
they were glad to take them to their heeles, and ran downe the street ; the
sojours convoying them to the Yaus bridge, and basting them soundly,
takeing from them their caps, and from the writer his with pearles, and a
necklace of pearle, in worth sixty rubles according as he complained after-
wards. This had bred me great trouble, if there had not been at that tyme
a great dissension betwixt Fiodor Michaelowitz Artistow, who had charge
of the court office, and our Boyar, whereby, after some formall inquisition,
the business was slighted. Yet, by perswasion of some officiers, who under-
stood the fashion of the countrey better as I, I removed to another quarter.
* [That is, as (Jordon explains in the next page, a colonel.]
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.