Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, was invited to England in 1698 by King William III. Peter During his stay, Peter sat at Kensington Palace for the artist Sir Godfrey Kneller, whose completed portrait of the Tsar still hangs in the Queen’s Gallery. The portrait stands as a majestic record of the Tsar's stay in England but gives us no clue of how terribly he behaved while he was here!

While in England, Peter stayed at John Evelyn's house in Deptford, in south-east London. Evelyn must have sorely regretted showing such hospitality to the Tsar. Once Peter had left, he discovered that nearly every window in his house had been smashed, every lock was broken, his paintings had bullet holes in them, and all of his chairs - and most of his staircase - had been chopped up for fire wood. What upset Evelyn most was the damage to his prized holly bushes, which he had spent more than 20 years cultivating.