Hedvig Taube

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Countess Hedvig Ulrika Taube (1714-1744) was a Swedish noblewoman, official mistress to King Frederick I of Sweden.

Hedvig Taube was the daughter of a noble family ^[1], when the king noticed the beautiful sixteen-year-old daughter of the family in 1730. King Frederick I, nearing sixty, was at this point more and more infamous for his sexual excesses. The young girl at first refused him; she was said to be persuaded by friends of the king to give in.

She was installed at court as lady-in-waiting to queen Ulrika Eleonora, and apparently became more to the king then merely a sexual plaything. On 1 March 1733, Hedvig gave birth a daughter, called Frederica Wilhelmina.

In 1734, the king had the Holy Roman Emperor grant her the title countess von Hessenstein, acknowledged her as his official mistress and gave her her own palace to live in with her own household; sadly, shortly after her one-year-old daughter died. This caused a great scandal, as she thus was the first official royal mistress in Swedish history. Of course, many Swedish kings had mistresses, but they had never previously been official, in the "French way"; the Queen locked herself in her rooms, the priests refused to pay homage in the churches to a king "with two wives", satirical pamphlettes circulated in Stockholm, the opinion of the public greatly favoured the Queen, as she was respected for her pious behaviour and the last of the old Swedish dynasty, and leaders of the government reminded the king of his promise to always "treat the queen with respect" when she abdicated in his favour. The king answered that the matter of treating the Queen with respect out of gratitude for her abdication had nothing to do with his private life, and wrote a letter to the Queen and asked her to protect Hedvig after his death.

The Queen had the bishops of the parliament's clerical group lecture both Hedvig and the king; the king answered that the government had promised not to get involved in his personal affairs and refused to accept a written protest. Hedvig followed the manner of the queen and pretended to be sick, but the bishops forced their way in to "The public sinner" and lectured her lying in bed with half of her face covered by a sheet. She said to them, "I had no idea that Her Majesty was displeased because of this," and the bishops replied "We can assure you miss that it is so, and how else should it be?", and she said to them that they should have lectured her when she was younger and defenceless.

The countess herself lived an unhappy and discreet life. After her first public appearance at court after her acknowledgment in 1735 the Queen protested by claiming to be indisposed and refused to leave her rooms, and after this, Hedvig never appeared at court again. She had never wanted to be a mistress, and when foreign ambassadors visited her to ask her to use her influence, she told them she had none and that she did not wish to have any. She did, however, became a noted mecenat for artists, and her salon became an own little court that rivaled that of the religious Queen. On 10 March of that year, Hedvig bore a second child, a son, named Fredrik Vilhelm, later Prince of Hessenstein. Two years later, on 26 November 1737, she gave birth his third child and second son, Karl Edvard, created Count of Hessenstein -he died unmarried in Paris on 1769-

In 1739, the Queen wanted Hedvig and her two sons expelled from the country, and they left for Hesse, but Hedvig stayed behind in Nyköping, where the king met her, claiming to go hunting, and she never left the country. This enraged the Queen who refused to leave her room for fourteen days, and it was said to have contributed to the Queens declining health, and Hedvig continued as his mistress.

Hedvig was introduced to the new Crown prince Adolf Fredrik in 1743; on 9 December of that year, she gave birth his fourth child and second daughter, Hedvig Amalia, created Countess of Hessenstein -she died in 1752 with only nine years-.

The next year (1744), Hedvig became pregnant again. She died in childbirth and was buried in the church of Strängnäs together with her stillborn daughter.