In October 1877, King Mindon became ill with dysentery and his condition rapidly deteriorated. His German physician, Dr Marfels, declared His Majesty's condition to be critical and Mindon was soon confined to the gilded thalun bed in his private apartments. His wives and daughters were in constant attendance and he was visited by a number of his sons and ministers.

A few hundred yards away, in the lacquered teak pavilion of the Council of State, the most senior grandees of the Court gathered to discuss the royal succession. Ever since the assassination of the Kanaung Prince in 1866, Mindon had steadfastly refused to appoint a new heir apparent, for fear that the chosen prince would become, in turn, a target for murder. The prime movers of the 1866 rebellion, the Myingun and Myinhkondaing Princes, were the eldest princes of their generation with excellent claims to the throne. But they had been living in exile since their failed coup and no attempt at reconciliation between father and sons had been made. The obvious candidates for the throne were the three senior princes who had remained loyal to Mindon: the Princes of Mekkaya, Nyaungyan and Thonzè. The Mekkaya Prince, who had been by his father's side during the worst days of the 1866 rebellion, was thought to be Mindon's favourite. He had substantial experience in government and was for a while in charge of the new factories being built outside the city. But a choice of any one over the other would almost certainly have resulted in a long period of infighting among this fifth generation in descent from Alaungpaya.