 After the king's death in May 1774, Choiseul was allowed to return to Paris and his party regained favor at court.Thus, on August 24 of the same year, Sartine was appointed Secretary of State for the Navy (with the honorific rank of Minister of State in 1775) and left his office of Lieutenant General of Police to his protégé Lenoir.Antoine de Sartine inherited a strong French Navy, resurrected by Choiseul after the disasters of the Seven Years' War (in which France had lost Canada, Louisiana, and India); a resurrected French Navy which would later defeat the British Navy in the War of American Independence.