The result of this various fighting was summed up in the Provisions of the famous Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, signed at that place in 1748. Maria Theresa was established on the Austrian throne, with the formal assent of the other powers. Her dominion in Northern Italy, including Milan and Tuscany, was confirmed. And the territory of Savoy was extended. In the south, the Bourbon king of the Two Sicilies retained these dominions. Thus, in the main, the position of neither Spain nor of France was greatly affected. We may note that one of the treaty provisions put Genoa under the protection of France. That may seem a detail rather small for attention in so outlined a story as this. It is, however, a detail of which the importance must be realised when we observe that Genoa claimed a sovereignty over the little island of Corsica. Corsica shortly afterwards rebelled against this sovereignty, with the ultimate result that the island was annexed by France in 1755. And in 1769 was born, in Corsica, Napoleon Bonaparte. It was in direct consequence, therefore, of this protectorate of Genoa by France under the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and of France's annexation of Corsica a few years later, that Napoleon was born a French subject. That seemingly accidental circumstance was of some importance in the world's history. The disposition of the various States in Italy, made by this Peace of 1748, was maintained with little disturbance until the armies of the French Republic, under the leadership of the wonderful Corsican, broke up every European disposition. If France, in the course of this war over the Austrian succession, had possessed an army free for an attack {120} in any force on England, it might have gone very hardly for our country. The son of James II., known as the Old Pretender (pretender to the Crown of England) was still living at the French Court in 1745; and in that year his son, Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, landed in Scotland, and led that rising which is known from its date as "the Forty-five." With the Highland clans to aid, he gained victories over the English generals sent against him, he conquered practically all Scotland and made his way southward in England as far as Derby. If he had shown determination, if he had pushed on towards London, it is quite likely that much of the future story of England and of the whole Anglo-Saxon community in the world might have to be written very differently. For England was not warmly devoted to her Hanoverian kings. The Young Pretender might have picked up many more adherents as he went south. Had a French force been poured in to his assistance at this critical moment, it seems to be the opinion of historians that his cause would have been won.