The mother of the late Nabob and his wife, who was the mother of the present Nabob, were known as the Begums or Princesses of Oude.  They had possessed great influence over Sujah Dowlah, and had, at his death, been left in possession of a splendid dotation.  The domains of which they received the rents and administered the government were of wide extent.  The treasure hoarded by the late Nabob, a treasure which was popularly estimated at near three millions sterling, was in their hands.  They continued to occupy his favourite palace at Fyzabad, the Beautiful Dwelling; while Asaph-ul-Dowlah held his court in the stately Lucknow, which he had built for himself on the shores of the Goomti, and had adorned with noble mosques and colleges.

Asaph-ul-Dowlah had already extorted considerable sums from his mother.  She had at length appealed to the English; and the English had interfered.  A solemn compact had been made, by which she consented to give her son some pecuniary assistance, and he in his turn promised never to commit any further invasion of her rights.  This compact was formally guaranteed by the Government of Bengal.  But times had changed; money was wanted; and the power which had given the guarantee was not ashamed to instigate the spoiler to excesses such that even he shrank from them.

It was necessary to find some pretext for a confiscation inconsistent, not merely with plighted faith, not merely with the ordinary rules of humanity and justice, but also with that great law of filial piety which, even in the wildest tribes of savages, even in those more degraded communities which wither under the influence of a corrupt half-civilisation, retains a certain authority over the human mind.  A pretext was the last thing that Hastings was likely to want.  The insurrection at Benares had produced disturbances in Oude.  These disturbances it was convenient to impute to the Princesses.  Evidence for the imputation there was scarcely any; unless reports wandering from one mouth to another, and gaining something by every transmission, may be called evidence.  The accused were furnished with no charge; they were permitted to make no defence for the Governor-General wisely considered that, if he tried them, he might not be able to find a ground for plundering them.  It was agreed between him and the Nabob Vizier that the noble ladies should, by a sweeping act of confiscation, be stripped of their domains and treasures for the benefit of the Company, and that the sums thus obtained should be accepted by the Government of Bengal in satisfaction of its claims on the Government of Oude.