In 1740, upon the death of her father, Maria Theresa of the Hapsburg Monarchy attempted to seize the throne as Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, Duchess of Parma and Archduchess of Austria. Her husband, Francis I, Duke of Lorraine, was to become the Holy Roman Emperor. According to the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, it was legal for a woman to succeed to the Austrian throne. However, Prussia’s King Frederick II, laid claim to the Silesian region, traditionally controlled by the Hapsburgs.

Maria Theresa, heir to the Hapsburg line, had taken control of the Austrian throne. This angered many who thought they had genealogical rights to the crown. Seizing on this, Prussian forces invaded the Silesian region of Austria, doubling the country’s size.