The dual deaths of George II and Lord Wilmington, on 27 June (although news did not reach London until 9 July) and 2 July, respectively, proved to be an unexpected boon for Frederick. As we have seen, many aspects of Walpole’s fall had proved a disappointment to Frederick and the rest of the Leicester House set: Pulteney had disgraced himself (in the eyes of many) by accepting a peerage; the Pelham brothers were ensconced as Leader of the House of Commons and Southern Secretary, respectively; and precious few positions had opened up in the royal household for a serious reshuffle. With so few alterations and little opportunity to make further inroads, Pulteney had all but given up by the end of 1742 and was preparing for a period of relatively unimportant retirement in the Lords.
However, all that was blown open by Frederick’s accession to the throne unexpectedly coinciding with a vacancy at the top of government. Lord Carlisle was installed as the First Lord of the Treasury and the general election in the autumn of 1743 saw Frederick’s influence mean that the Patriots took control of yet more rotten and pocket boroughs, while a wave of patriotic support saw their vote rise in the quasi-democratic constituencies. The small group of Parliamentarians who considered themselves Tories actually saw their votes hold up reasonably well, although they were largely irrelevant to day-to-day politics by this point.
The election gave Frederick and Carlisle room to manoeuvre and into the cabinet came favourites from the Leicester House days including Sir Thomas Bootle, Sir George Lee, George Dodington, Lord Baltimore and Lord Perceval. Significantly, however, there was no space for Pulteney and Bolingbroke, the latter of whom at least seems to have been under the impression that he would be returning to office for the first time in two decades. On the other hand, despite the ministerial turnover, we should not exaggerate the scale of the changes. Despite the claims of a “Massacre of the Pelhamite innocents” in some of the Whig press, Pelham and Newcastle remained in government in significant positions. The new ministry was to a great extent, as Alexander Pope commented, “The same old Court garnished with a halo of Patriot imagery.”
Sir George Lee, one of the individuals of the Leicester House Set to enter cabinet in 1743
Of particular importance, in the context of the ongoing War of the Austrian Succession, was the rapprochement between Newcastle and Frederick. Newcastle strongly supported Maria Theresa’s position during the War of the Austrian Succession and Frederick reversed his previous pro-peace beliefs and continued prosecution of the war effort. British efforts in the remaining two years of the conflict, including a raid on Louisbourg and repelling an invasion of Georgia, were mostly successful and resulted in a strengthened British position in North America, even if the coastal colonies remained menaced by Spanish and French presence inland.
Combat in Europe was more decisive. Prussia had invaded Silesia in August with a force of 80,000 troops, taking advantage of Austria’s commitments in Alsace and disunity between the Pragmatic Allies more generally. By October, however, the Prussian King had left himself dangerously exposed after Saxony entered the coalition as an active belligerent. Frederick, anxious to promote himself as a warrior king, travelled to Silesia at the head of a combined Hanoverian-Saxon-Austrian force. Although he failed to bring the Prussian king to battle, the Prussians were forced to retreat back to their own lands, half their army gone.
With the coalition seeming well-positioned at the end of 1744, France and Spain seem to have planned another Jacobite uprising, although French naval defeat at the Battle of Toulon meant that the promised "‘45" petered out with little fanfare. The coalition came under severe pressure from the Dutch, who feared an imminent invasion of their country, to make peace with the French. Frederick and Newcastle both considered that any peace would be disadvantageous to Britain and the king faced pressure from London to bring the conflict to an end. The newly-empowered Patriots, notably Carlisle and Perceval, were firmly of the opinion that the conflict needed to end.
Frederick depicted on campaign c. 1744. The combat shown in the background is the painter's invention, as a pitched battle did not occur.
The resulting Treaty of Dresden (1745) brought the War of the Austrian Succession to a close. Maria Theresa was confirmed as Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary, while her husband became Holy Roman Emperor Francis I. Territorially, Austrian control of Silesia was confirmed while the Duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla were ceded to Spain. All other territories were returned to their pre-war owners.
The treaty represented a decisive victory for the Pragmatic Coalition, with Maria Theresa’s position now secured and British control of Minorca and Gibraltar similarly solid. Domestically however, most regarded the peace as an unhappy end to a misbegotten episode. For Carlisle and many other Patriots, the war demonstrated the continued vulnerability of the Hanoverians’ continental holdings. The Patriots had been in favour of war with Spain over America but they were opposed to spending enormous sums subsidising the defence of Brunswick or the Austrians’ control of Silesia. This would remain a dividing line with the Whigs, who perceived the need for British involvement on the European continent.
Frederick too felt a sense of personal failure. Not only had he failed to win the glorious victory he had so desired but the strategic importance of his expedition in causing the Prussians to abandon Silesia did not attract the praise he seemed to have expected. “The calumnies and criticism that is poured upon me,” he complained in a letter to Augusta, “all for the sin of presuming to avenge my father’s sacrifice.” Considering the nature of their relationship, it’s hard not to look on such statements with a little bit of cynicism. But it does seem that his father’s death allowed Frederick to think about George II more positively than he had done in life. He took an active part in the public mourning and unveiled a memorial to his father at Westminster Abbey in August 1745.
In domestic politics, the new reign promised much. The Leicester House circle had attracted attention as the Patriots and criticism as the Tories in a new guise. They promised a society composed of independent and free men joined together in the common pursuit of the public good. But at the same time it was a society whose liberty ultimately depended upon the virtue of their prince. How this would look in practice was, of course, less certain.
– from ‘Frederick: King, Elector and Emperor’ (2012)
