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PREFACE. xiii King Charles Gustavus of Sweden was mustering for the invasion of Poland.
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
PREFACE. xiii
King Charles Gustavus of Sweden was mustering for the invasion
of Poland.
The next,^ a single leaf from the Journal of the winter of
1658, tells how the writer and fourteen of his Cavalier fellow-
countrymen, then lying with the Swedish army on the banks of
the Vistula, were baffled in an attempt to assassinate the Am-
bassador from the English Commonwealth to the Court of Moscow,
in the mistaken belief that he was the President of the Court which
sat in judgment on King Charles the First.
In the third.^ we have Gordon's relation of the circumstances
under which, in 1661, he left the Polish army at Warsaw, engaged
to follow the Austrian banner, broke his faith, outwitted the Im-
perial Ambassador, and posted to Moscow to take a Major's com-
mission under the Czar.
The fourth* gives the Diary kept by Gordon, now a Colonel,
during his journey on a special mission from Russia to England
in It 66 and 1667.
The fifth^ records a second journey from Moscow to London,
after a lapse of twenty years, the reception of the writer, who
had now risen to the rank of Lieutenant-General, at the Court of
King James the Second, his sojourn in the Scottish capital, and his
visit to his kinsfolk and paternal acres in Aberdeenshire.
Last of all, are one or two letters '° on his family affairs, and a
few others on public events, between 1690 and 1696, addressed to
the Duke of Gordon and other Scottish peers/' by one who, now
« p. 28. •" Pp. 175-179, 181-183.
'Pp. 32-53. "Pp. iC8, 170, 171, 173, 180, 181,
' Pp. 55-104.. 184., 183.
" Pp. 109- 163.
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.