In the late summer of 1741 Britain's Northern secretary, the pliant earl of Harrington, was making his fourth trip to Hanover, accompanying George II on one of his frequent and extended visits to his German homeland. The international situation which confronted them was serious and would shortly become critical. In the previous December Prussia's new, youthful and ambitious ruler Frederick the Great (1740–86) – seizing the opportunity presented by the sudden death of the Emperor Charles VI (1711–40) without a male heir two months earlier – had invaded the Habsburg province of Silesia, occupying it easily. In the following spring the Prussian forces had won a fortuitous but significant victory at Mollwitz over an Austrian relieving army (April 1741). These two events launched the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48), as a European coalition took shape with the intention of challenging Maria Theresa's succession and dividing her inheritance. This was a clear threat to the German and, by extension, the European balance of power, and it was viewed as such by British ministers.

The central role was played not by Prussia but by France, who under the decisive leadership of the comte de Belle-Isle spearheaded a dramatic and large-scale intervention in central Europe, with the twin aim of defeating Austria militarily and electing the Bavarian claimant, Charles Albert, Holy Roman Emperor.