Hedvig Ulrika Taube (31 October 1714 – 11 February 1744), also Countess von Hessenstein, was a Swedish courtier and countess, a countess of the Holy Roman Empire, and royal mistress to king Frederick I of Sweden from 1731 to 1744. She and Sophie Hagman are the only two official royal mistresses in Swedish history.
Early life Hedvig Taube was one of nine children of Count Edvard Didrik Taube (1681–1751) and Christina Maria Falkenberg (1686–1753). Her sister, Catherine Charlotte, was to marry the brother of scientist Countess Eva Ekeblad, who was also the aunt of the renowned Axel von Fersen the Younger. In 1716, the future king Frederick became one of the godparents to her sister Christina Beata. During the 1720s, her father was nearly ruined and placed in heavy debt because of gambling and bad business: in 1730, the family had been forced to change their city residence to a cheaper one.Jacobson, Esther, Hedvig Taube: en bok om en svensk kunglig mätress, Wahlström & Widstrand, Stockholm, 1919
Hedvig Taube was described as a beauty, and in 1730, the king noticed her, likely on a visit to baron Otto Reinhold Strömfelt, who was married to her paternal aunt. He started to court her with baskets of fruit and flowers sent to the home of her indebted father: reportedly, jewels and other valuable items were hidden beneath the fruit. He also inquired whether Arvid Horn would be willing to house her, so as to make it possible for the king to court her in person. Horn refused, and during the Riksdag of 1731, he warned the king that he was the topic of dislike in the Clergy estate for courting a young unmarried lady.
The king's favorite and confidant, Erland Broman, convinced her father to agree to a sexual relationship between his daughter and the king. Hedvig Taube herself, however, was engaged to a young count Erik Sparre and refused, supported by her mother. Her mother suggested to take Hedvig Taube with her to their country estate Kungshatt to avoid the king's attention, but her spouse: "sold his daughter to the king for quite a sizable sum. His debts were paid and promotions made for his sons and his relations",Norrhem, Svante (2007). Kvinnor vid maktens sida: 1632–1772. Lund: Nordic Academic Press. Libris 10428618. and he sent his wife alone to the country and kept his daughter with him in the capital. Her betrothed, Erik Sparre, was also removed, as he was included to be a part of the entourage accompanied the king to his visit to Hesse, and several people were sent to Hedvig Taube to convince her to agree to the king's advances upon his return, notably her father's maiden aunt Beata Taube and Carl Tersmeden, calling her future fate more beautiful than she could imagine. She was convinced by being pressed by her duty to her family, and the custom of maîtresse-en-titre in France, which was not seen as improper there and would be introduced in Sweden with her. Meanwhile, her mother was convinced to agree to the matter by Eleonora Lindhielm and Hedvig Catharina Lillie, married to Daniel Niklas von Höpken and Magnus Julius De la Gardie, who wished to benefit their political careers by supporting the king.
In the company of her mother and aunt, Hedvig Taube was brought to the king at Karlberg Palace upon his return from Hesse 12 November 1731. Shortly thereafter, she was appointed (maid of honour), to queen Ulrika Eleonora to become accessible to the king at court and, though it was not spoken aloud, to become his mistress. When the carriage came to take her to court, Tersmeden reported her saying; My fate is harder than I could imagine. I am being forced to expose my virtue to save a family ruined by gambling. Her father was appointed , and others who had participated in the affair in the king's favor were rewarded.
Maid of honor During her tenure as maid of honor at court, her position as mistress to the king was kept secret. Initially, the relationship was kept a secret from the queen by her favorite and confidant Emerentia von Düben.Lundh-Eriksson, Nanna (1976). Den glömda drottningen: Karl XII:s syster Ulrika Eleonora d.y. och hennes tid [The Forgotten Queen: The sister of Charles XII Ulrika Eleonora the Younger and her era] [Stockholm]: Libris 7790483. (Swedish) The queen did not consider it proper to expose the monarch to slander in public, and participated in protecting the king's reputation. During the hunting trip to Dalarna, which the royal court undertook in 1732 to celebrate the visit of the king's brother Prince William of Hesse, the queen demonstrated her disregard to the rumors by displaying affection to her maid of honor Hedvig Taube, when they were seen by the public during walks.
At this point, she was regarded at court as a temporary amusement. She was referred to as by the king, who gave her gifts financed by his income from Hesse. In the winter of 1733–34, Taube was pregnant with her first child. The affair was kept a secret: Taube retired to her room simulating bedridden illness as soon as the pregnancy could not be hidden, and before the birth was due, in February 1734 the king convinced the queen to take the royal court to Ulriksdal Palace, and Taube was left alone to give birth in the royal palace in Stockholm. The child, a daughter known as "Mamsell Erlich", was left to a foster mother, but died soon after. Hedvig Taube avoided official discovery, but the birth was subject of widespread gossip in the capital.
Hedvig Taube was supported by her family, as well as the politicians Daniel Niklas von Höpken, Karl Gyllenborg and Hans Reinhold von Fersen and their followers, and on their request, she made recommendations of candidates to political offices to the king, something which created rising discontent. She did, however, not display any personal interest in state affairs. The French envoy in Sweden, Charles Louis de Biaudos de Casteja, was known to recognize the participation of women in the Swedish party strife of the Age of Liberty and confirmed to have recruited several female agents for French interests in Sweden, such as Charlotta von Liewen and Margareta Gyllenstierna, attempted to recruit the king's mistress Hedvig Taube for 100.000 livres, but she refused and expressed no interest to be involved in state affairs.
Royal mistress
In late 1734, Hedvig Taube conceived again, and this time, she left her position at court and was installed at a private residence the king had arranged for her close to the royal residence of Wrangel Palace awaiting her delivery, where he regularly visited her by litter. On 17 March 1735, she gave birth to a son by the king in her residence, the child was then given the king's brother William of Hesse as his godson and promised the title count of Hesse. Hedvig Taube was given an allowance of 12,000 dlr from the estate of Hesse, where the king ruled in the province of Landgrave. All of this exposed the relationship between the king and Hedvig Taube to the public and both were unable to conceal it any longer. She became the first acknowledged royal mistress in Sweden, which resulted in a public scandal. After her public acknowledgement and first appearance at court in 1735, the queen protested by claiming to be indisposed and refused to leave her room. After this snub, Taube never appeared at court again.
Public opinion favored the queen, who enjoyed great popularity for her personal piety and for being the only remaining member of the old Swedish dynasty. The queen herself, however, refused to display public displeasure, as this opposed her view on royal dignity. She did confess her displeasure in private to her confidante Emerentia von Düben, who, however, stated that it would be undignified for Ulrika Eleonora to notice this affair, and that her position as queen was untouchable: "As the moon continue its course over the sky with no care for the barks of dogs, so should Her Majesty despise the gossip, which has been unleashed by this so unfortunate and blind commitment."
After the birth, the king referred to Hedvig Taube more respectfully as la Comtesse Taube rather than la belle Colombe. The scandal initially ostracized Hedvig Taube from society, but her isolation was broken when a group of female members of the nobility, Sarah Derith (spouse of Carl Gyllenborg), Eleonora Magdalena Wachtmeister and Eleonora Lindheim (spouse of Daniel Niklas von Höpken) paid her an official visit to ask the monarch through Taube to benefit the career of their spouses, which discontinued the ostracism and initiated her career as intermediary to the king.Norrhem, Svante (2007). Kvinnor vid maktens sida : 1632–1772. (Women alongside power: 1632–1772) Lund: Nordic Academic Press. Libris 10428618. (Swedish) After this Hedvig Taube hosted her own receptions in her residence, sometimes alone, and sometimes in the company of the king, and were courted by artists and supplicants. She acted as the patron of artists, the most noted one being Olof von Dahlin, who has been referred to as her court poet. According to contemporaries, Hedvig Taube had "power over the king's mind", and "the use she made of it eventually came to have rather significant consequences in both interior- and foreign policy". However, her influence was normally used not to promote an agenda of any kind, but to make recommendations of candidates to various positions to the king, something which was successfully used by her father. Her salon became a center for the Hats (party), who opposed the Caps (party) government under Arvid Horn and sought to influence the king through her after the Riksdag of 1734 until the Riksdag of 1738. She herself, however, was reportedly not in opposition to Horn.
Riksdag of 1738–39
The Riksdag of 1738–39 signified a crisis for Hedvig Taube. Frustrated at her refusal to be recruited as an agent and influence the monarch in favor of the French-supported Hats, the Hats party under Carl Gyllenborg withdrew their support to her appending the Riksdag of 1738. Already in the inauguration of the Swedish language theater at Bollhuset the previous year, Gylleborg's play Svenska sprätthöken had criticized the king and government, and prior to the Riksdag of 1738, the leading Hat party sympathizer, the salon hostess Hedvig Catharina Lillie arranged a play in her private theater in honor to the birth day of the king, were the relationship of the king and Taube were caricatured, an incident that affected opinion in favor of the Hats party in the following election, as they had positioned themselves against the adultery of the monarch. Numerous pamphlets and propaganda circulated condemning the adultery of the king and the Caps government in the name of the Hat party, and Carl Gyllenborg himself wrote an anonymous letter of complaint to the archbishop Jöns Steuchius accusing him of neglecting his duty, signed "Lisa Husbonde" (Lisa the Master of the House). All this stirred public opinion, and Hedvig Taube reportedly used bribes in an attempt to prevent the matter from being raised in parliament.
During the Riksdag of 1738–39, the father of Hedvig Taube was deposed as riksråd after Sten Coyet had raised the question of the relationship between his daughter and the king. The question of the king's adultery with Hedvig Taube was finally raised in the Riksdag by Fryxell, a member of the clergy estate. The archbishop had already had a private conversation with the queen about he matter, during which the queen had lamented herself over the king's adultery and her disappointment of the Taube family. The clergy estate pointed to the oath made by the king in 1720, when he succeeded the queen on the Swedish throne after she abdicated in his favor, in which he had made the promise to: "love, honor and respect my most worthy consort, the all powerful Princess Ulrica Eleonora [...] and declare the Estates to be free of their oath of allegiance, should I ever break this oath and insurance", in fact declaring the king deposed if he disrespected the queen.