Upon his father's death in 1726, Lord Stanhope assumed his seat in the House of Lords and became the 4th Earl of Chesterfield. The new Lord Chesterfield's inclination towards oration, often seen as ineffective in the House of Commons because of its polish and lack of force, was met with appreciation in the House of Lords,l and won many to his side. In 1728, under service to the new king, George II, Chesterfield was sent to the Hague as ambassador, where his gentle tact and linguistic dexterity served him well. As a reward for his diplomatic service, Chesterfield received the Order of the Garter in 1730, the position of Lord Steward, and the friendship of Robert Walpole. While a British envoy in the Hague, he helped negotiate the second Treaty of Vienna (1731), which signaled the collapse of the Anglo-French Alliance, and the beginning of the Anglo-Austrian Alliance. In 1732, Madelina Elizabeth du Bouchet, a French governess, gave birth to his illegitimate son, Philip for whose advice on life Chesterfield wrote the "Letters to his Son". By the end of 1732, ill health and financial troubles led to Chesterfield's return to Britain and his resignation as ambassador In 1731, while at The Hague, Chesterfield initiated the Grand Duke of Tuscany (later to become Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor) from the House of Habsburg-Lorraine into Freemasonry, which was at the time being used as an intelligence network by the British Whigs.