superiority; the successful battles of Hennersdorf and Kesselsdorf opened the way to Dresden, which Frederick occupied on 18 December. The Treaty of Dresden was eventually completed on Christmas Day (25 December) and Saxony was obliged to pay one million rixdollars in reparations to the Prussian state. The treaty ended the Second Silesian War with a status quo ante bellum. Maria Theresa was finally recognized as Empress with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, which proved a Pyrrhic victory for Augustus III, however, the conflict nearly bankrupted Saxony. Meanwhile, the affairs in Poland remained highly neglected. Seven Years' War The Electorate of Saxony was involved in the Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763. The Saxons were allied with Austria and Russia against Frederick the Great of Prussia, who saw Saxony as another potential field for expansion. Saxony was then merely a buffer zone between Prussia and Austrian Bohemia as well as Silesia, which Frederick attempted to annex in their entirety. Moreover, Saxony and Poland were separated by a strip of land in Silesia and Lusatia which made the movement of troops even more difficult. Frederick's plans also entailed annexing Duchy of Hanover, but joining France would trigger an Austro-Russian attack and occupation. On 29 August 1756, the Prussian army preemptively invaded Saxony, beginning the Third Silesian War, a theatre of the Seven Years' War. Saxony was bled dry and exploited at the maximum extent to support Prussia's war effort. The Treaty of Hubertusburg signed on 15 February 1763 ended the conflict with Frederick's victory and Saxony renounced its claim to Silesia. Death In April 1763, Augustus returned ill and frail from Poland to Dresden with his closest advisors, leaving Primate Władysław Aleksander Łubieński behind to take care of the affairs in the Commonwealth. He died suddenly on 5 October 1763 in Dresden from apoplexy (stroke). Unlike his father who rests at Wawel in Kraków, Augustus III was buried at Dresden Cathedral and remains one of the few Polish monarchs who were buried outside of Poland. Augustus's eldest surviving son, Frederick Christian of Saxony, succeeded his father as Elector but died two and a half months later. In the Commonwealth, on September 7, 1764, with the small participation of the szlachta initiated by the Czartoryski's and the strong support of Russia, Stanisław August Poniatowski was elected king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Reigning under the name Stanisław II Augustus,