page_title: Gustav Badin
section_title: Court life in adulthood
hierarchical_section_title: Gustav Badin / Court life in adulthood
context_page_description: Adolf Ludvig Gustav Fredrik Albert Badin né Couchi, known as Badin was a Swedish court servant and diarist. Originally a slave, he was the foster son and servant of Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden and a servant to his foster sister Princess Sophia Albertine of Sweden. His original name was Couchi, but he was commonly known as Badin.
context_section_description: On 11 December 1768, he was baptised in the chapel of Drottningholm Palace with the entire royal family, except Prince Charles, as his godparents. 
  He was described as an intelligent and reliable person with self-confidence, and though he was informed about many of the secrets of the royal family and the court, he never revealed anything, and was very loyal to the royal house throughout his entire life.
  Badin sometimes helped the court poet Bellman to compose verses for special occasions, and some of them were published in his name. Badin participated in plays at the French Theatre in Bollhuset; he is listed as a dancer in a ballet in the 1769–70 season and played the main part in Arlequin Sauvage in the 1770–71 season, a play in which a "savage" meets civilization, and an erotic play by Marivaux.
  In 1782, when the queen lay on her death-bed in her country residence, she sent Badin to Stockholm with the key to her files. After her death, Badin acquired the files and handed them in the custody of prince Fredrick Adolf and princess Sophia Albertina, who burnt them   The young king, Gustav III of Sweden, became enraged. They had an argument and the king said; "Do you not know, you black person, that such things may cost your head?" He replied: "My head is in the power of your Majesty, but I could not act in a different way."
caption: Louisa Ulrika of Prussia by Lorens Pasch the Younger.
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