Badin och livet vid Lovisa Ulrikas hov

Adolf Ludvig Badin was born into slavery in the West Indies in 1750. He came to the Swedish queen Lovisa Ulrika as a "gift" at the age of ten.

Lovisa Ulrika initially had him brought up according to the principles of free education that Jean-Jacques Rousseau introduced in 1762 in his book Emile eller Om Uppfostran. Badin was foster brother to the royal children Gustav (born 1746), Karl (born 1748), Fredrik Adolf (born 1750) and Sofia Albertina (born 1753). He was baptised in Slottskyrkan at Kungliga Slottet in 1768. Badin remained a footman at Lovisa Ulrika's court until her death in the summer of 1782. He died in 1822.

The fraternal order Par Bricole, where Badin was ballet master from 1798 until his death in 1822, holds his autobiography, written in his own hand in 1814. Mats Hayen is Deputy Archivist of Par Bricole and has worked in recent years on a study of the autobiography and its contents. Mats Hayen is a historian and research director at Stockholms stadsarkiv.