Background
Hedvig Taube was a member of a noble family, who suffered from gambling debts when the king noticed the beautiful sixteen-year-old daughter of the family in 1730. She was the daughter of the royal councillor Count Edvard Didrik Taube and Christina Maria Falkenerg. Her sister, Catherine Charlotte, was to marry the brother of the famous scientist Countess Eva Ekeblad, aunt of famous Axel von Fersen the Younger. King Frederick I, nearing sixty, was at this point more and more infamous for his sexual excesses. The young girl at first refused him, but she was exposed to a great effort of persuasion; first, court officials came and offer her the formal position as a lady-in-waiting to the queen, while it was understood that she would in reality be the mistress of the king. Both the king's friends, among them her relatives, and her own family united themselves in the persuasion; she had nine siblings, and her family suffered from gambling debts at the time of the king's suggestion. Carl Tersmeden held a speech to her calling her future fate as more beautiful than she could imagine, the wives of two noblemen of the court visited her to make her give in, her mother, her paternal and maternal aunts all did what they could, and eventually, her resistance was broken. 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.
She was installed at court as lady-in-waiting to queen Ulrika Eleonora in 1731, and apparently became more to the king then merely a sexual plaything. On 1 March 1733, Taube gave birth a daughter, called Frederica Wilhelmina.
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