Russia and Genoa. Charles III, having declared war on Great Britain in alliance with the United States, was angered by Acton's appointment to the Ministry of War and of Marine because he felt his Spanish candidate, Don Antonio Otero, was more worthy of such a high government post by virtue of the fact he wasn't English. Maria Carolina once again replied using a letter written by the king, expounding to Charles III that Acton, the son of a French woman, was not English and that he was appointed before Spanish hostilities with Britain broke out. Charles's attacks against Acton only served to endear the latter more to the queen, who proceeded to appoint him Field-Marshal. Acton's reforms were not restricted to the expansion of the navy; at the same time, he cut the expenditure of his department by 500,000 ducats and invited foreign drill-sergeants and officers to fill vacancies in the army. Acton and Maria Carolina were seen to have become so close by 1782 that, according to the Sardinian ambassador in Naples, people falsely believed they were lovers. That the rumour was untrue was not known to the king, who tried several times to "surprise you together" and threatened to kill them both in a rage. In response, Maria Carolina set spies on her husband, but a reconciliation was soon achieved. As part of this rapprochement, Acton went to live in Castellamare, but returned to Naples three times a week to see the queen. Artistic patronage and the death of Charles III Maria Carolina patronised German-Swiss artists, foremostly Angelica Kauffman, who famously painted the queen’s family in an informal garden setting in 1783, and gave her daughters lessons in drawing. Maria Carolina showered Kauffman with gifts, but she preferred the artistic circles in Rome to Naples. The queen’s patronage was not restricted to portrait painters: she allotted landscape painter Jacob Philipp Hackert a wing of the palace at Francavilla. Like Kauffman, he gave lessons to the queen’s children and enjoyed her confidence. On recommendation from Hackert, the king and queen restored the statues of Palazzo Farnese and brought them to Naples. In 1784, the queen established the philanthropic San Leucio colony, a village with its own unique laws and customs whose sole object was to weave silk. She also commissioned ornamental snuff boxes and jewellery from goldsmiths. In 1788, with the death of King Charles III, Neapolitan-Spanish relations improved.