20th of October 1827, her own frequent ebullitions, which often disfigured the King’s robes and vests, and left even the hair on his head and chin unsafe, and Aga Meer’s sagacious suggestions, satisfied him that his own personal safety and peace of mind, and the welfare of the State, depended upon his keeping as much as possible aloof from her.  He was fond of his son, Nuseer-od Deen Hyder, but during his minority he always took the part of his adoptive mother, the Padshah Begum; and, in consequence, remained almost as much as she was alienated from the King, his father.  His natural mother died soon after his birth; and people suspected that the Padshah Begum had her put to death that she might have no rival in his affections; and she had an entire ascendancy over him, acquired by every species of enervating indulgences; and he remained all his life utterly without character, ignorant of the rudiments of public affairs, and altogether incapable of taking any useful part in them.

She retained this ascendancy over him for some time after he became King, first from habit and affection, and latterly from the fears with which she continued to inspire him, that she could, by her disclosures, whenever she pleased, prevail upon the British Government to set him aside in favour of some other member of the royal family, as the Buhoo Begum of Fyzabad had set aside Wuzeer Allee.  She made him dismiss his father’s minister, Aga Meer, with disgrace, and confer the seals on Fuzl Allee, the nephew of her favourite waiting-woman, Fyzon Nissa; but when the shrewd and sagacious Hakeem Mehndee became minister three years after, he soon persuaded the young King, that all fears of his adoptive mother’s disclosures or wishes were idle, and that nothing which she could do or say would induce the British Government to disturb his possession of the sovereignty of Oude.  He is said to have been the first person who ventured to hint to him the murder of his natural mother by the Padshah Begum; and he was, or pretended to be, violently shocked and grieved.  He then built a splendid tomb or cenotaph for her; and endowed it with the means for maintaining pious men to read the Koran in it, and attendants of all kinds to keep it in a condition suitable for the mother of a King.  He shuddered, or pretended to shudder, at the mention of the name of the Padshah Begum, as the most atrocious of murderesses.  The minister of the day always made it a point to bring the reigning favourite of the seraglio over to his views, by giving her a due share of the profits and patronage of his office; and it was for this reason, that the high-born chief consort, whose influence over the King could not be so purchased, was soon made to retire from the palace, and, ever after, to live separated from her husband.