Related
1667] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. lOl with their officers, from which 1 diswaded them, that the Emperour
166 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1669 The renewal of the war against the Crim Tartars
1655] DIAEY OF PATRICK GORDON. 17 who was, according to the custome of the Polonian nobility
122 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 flesh was torren out of their armes
174 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1692 be restored. As for Harie Gordon
1689] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 165 memory, the younger Czar
1686] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 155 Crossing the Black River
148 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 gave him a warning concerning tlie wedsett of the Muirtacke
66 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1666 wee had from Plesko
50 DIARY OF PATKICK GORDON. [1661 pretending themselves affronted, began to convoy the writer with the Streltsees
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
50 DIAEY OF PATKICK GORDON. [1661
pretending themselves affronted, began to convoy the writer with the Strelt-
sees rudely out of doores ; who, being come out into the streets, called their
comerades to help, and breake into the house againe, and into the garden,
where they found the brandy, which they tooke, and some souldiers with it.
But more souldiers comeing upon the tumult, not only tooke back the
souldiers and brandy, but falling by the eares with the Streltsees, drove
them to the citty gates, where, being recruited with others, who lived there,
they drove the souldiers back againe. By this tyme the party es encreased,
the Streltsees being about seven hundred, and the sojours about eighty ; but
the street being narrow, and the sojours more desperate and resolute, drove
the Streltsees into the gates of the White Wall, at which tyme six hundred
Streltsees comeing from the maine guard of the Castle, cut of the passage
of those who were gott within the gates, and tooke twenty seven of them,
who, after examination, the next day, were beat with the knute, and sent to
Sibiria.
The next : A Russe captaine, called Affonasse Constantino [witsch] Spiri-
donuf, haveing commanded these souldiers befor wee received them, and
being now in the regiment, and a crafty fellow, had acquired and assumed
such authority among and over the sojours, that he acted many things in-
consisting -with command. I told and forbidd him many tymes, but all would
not help. I complained to the Colonel [Crawfuird] who, being a person un-
willing to be troubled with any business, slighted it ; wherewith, I being not
well satisfyed, and this captaine haveing one night entrapped some souldiers
playing at cards, he not only tooke all the money which they had at play,
but imprisoned them by the provost marshall untill they gave him a great
deale more, in all about sixty rubles, and then let them go ; and all this
without my knowledge, which ought not to be, I haveing the chieffe com-
mand. I being advertised of this the next day, could not containe myself,
but sent for him in the evening, and, haveing dispatched the guard and my
servants, all except one, out of the way, he being come into the roome, I
began to expostulate with him, telling him, that I could not suffer such
abuses any longer, and that I would break his neck one tyme or another.
Whereat he beginning to storme, I gott him by the head, and flinging him
downe, with a fresh, short, oaken cudgcll, T so belrboured liis back and sides,
that he was scarce able to rise ; whereupon, telling him that I would break
his neck if he played such tricks hereafter, I packed him out of doores. He
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.