they made, or felt they had failed to obtain what they were due. These factors led to the diplomatic re-alignment known as the 1756 Diplomatic Revolution, and the subsequent Seven Years' War. Prussia, which doubled in size and wealth with the acquisition of Silesia, was the most obvious beneficiary, Austria arguably the biggest loser. Maria Theresa did not see acceptance of the Pragmatic Sanction as any kind of concession, while she deeply resented Britain's insistence Austria cede Silesia and the concessions made in Italy. On the other hand, the Habsburgs survived a potentially disastrous crisis, regained the Austrian Netherlands and largely retained their position in Italy. Administrative and financial reforms made it stronger in 1750 than 1740, while its strategic position was strengthened by installing Habsburgs as rulers of key territories in Northwest Germany, the Rhineland and Northern Italy. The Spanish considered their territorial gains in Italy inadequate, failed to recover Menorca or Gibraltar, and viewed the reassertion of British commercial rights in the Americas as an insult. Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia felt he had been promised the Duchy of Parma, but had to content himself with minor cessions from Austria. The war confirmed the decline of the Dutch Republic as a Great Power, and exposed the weakness of their Barrier forts, which proved unable to stand up to modern artillery. Few Frenchmen understood the desperate financial state that required the return of their gains in the Austrian Netherlands; combined with the lack of tangible benefits for helping Prussia, it led to the phrase "as stupid as the Peace". This view was widely shared; many French statesmen felt Louis XV had panicked, while English writer and politician, Horace Walpole, wrote "wonderful it is...why the French have lost so much blood and treasure to so little purpose". As a result of the Treaty Charles Edward Stuart, the Jacobite Pretender to the thrones of Britain was arrested and exiled from France. The decline of the Dutch Republic as a military power exposed the vulnerability of Hanover, George II's German possession. In exchange for restoring the Barrier forts, France insisted on the return of Louisbourg, whose capture in 1745 was one of the few clear British successes of the war. This caused fury in both Britain and the American colonies, where it was seen as benefitting the Dutch and Hanover. Lord Sandwich, the lead British negotiator, failed to include the Utrecht terms