The Hanoverian Interest; British Foreign Policy and the Electorate of Hanover, 1740-1760

During the eighteenth century, Hanover acted as a link to continental affairs in the realm of British foreign policy, but the extent of this influence varied greatly throughout the period of personal union. Given the nature of Hanover’s political connection to Great Britain, during the eighteenth century it became a byword for continental connection within British politics, its name and supposed influence over British policy frequently bandied about in the Parliamentary record both in support of and in opposition to British interventionism on the continent. Between 1740 and 1760 Britain became involved in two continental wars, the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and the Seven Years War (1756-1763). In both of these conflicts and during the years separating them, Hanover’s connection to Great Britain became a central question in British foreign policy, and appeared in the contemporary debates in both Parliament and the emerging British press about the nature of British imperial identity, the influence of the British monarch over the ministry, and the imagined role Great Britain should play in continental politics