Lacoste, Ian

Jan Lacosta ( d'Acosta ; 1665 - 1740 ) - court jester of Peter I , Anna Ioannovna and Duke of Biron ^[1] . He became the hero of numerous jokes.

Descendant of the Marans who fled from Portugal to North Africa . After long wanderings in Europe, he settled with his father and brothers in Hamburg , where he opened a brokerage office. Then he gave etiquette lessons. In 1712 or 1713 was introduced to Peter I , who was in Hamburg, who took him with his family to Russia.

Lacoste was a smart and clever man, well educated: he spoke six European languages ​​and knew the Bible perfectly. A funny, awkward figure and the ability to please everyone allowed him to become a jester at the court, where he received the name Peter Dorofeevich. It is known that he helped Peter I , whom he called the “godfather,” to cut the caftans on the boyars and cut their beards . In 1717, Jan Lacoste converted to Orthodoxy .

Peter I liked to enter into theological disputes with him, and for diligent buffoonery he bestowed on him the title of “ Samoyed king”, giving him one of the uninhabited islands of the Gulf of Finland - Sommers ^[2] - in connection with which Lacosta began to appear at feasts in the tall crown of tin, always shifted in one ear ^[3] .

On the initiative of A.D. Menshikov, in 1723 he was exiled to the Ural village of Voskresenskoye (then the village of Kadermetev; now the Kaslinsky district of the Chelyabinsk region) for his connection with Vice-Chancellor P. P. Shafirov sentenced to death. He was again returned to the court by Empress Anna Ioannovna .