As Mahmud Shah II was a young child at the time, the state operated under the joint regency of his mother and the Bendahara Paduka Raja until the latter's death on 27 July 1697.
[3][4] The Scottish country trader Alexander Hamilton vividly recorded several incidents, including the discharge of a firearm into a servant to test its efficacy, which further supports these larger accounts.
The economic turmoil that ensued, combined with violence directed towards women related to the Orang kaya (Malay nobility), led high officials of the state to decide to act against the Sultan.
The killing of Sultan Mahmud Shah II created a crisis in the Johor state as he was considered to be the last in line of the dynasty descended from the rulers of Johor-Melaka-Srivijaya.
Over the next two decades, the Bendahara dynasty had difficulty gaining support, leading to attempts from communities living in peripheral areas under Johor control to exert their own sovereignty.
By 1718, a usurper from eastern Sumatra known as Raja Kecil, and claiming to be the son of Sultan Mahmud Shah II, attacked Johor with the support of Orang Laut and a variety of diverse ethnic groups.
[2] Among the most popularly accepted retellings of these events placed blame for the regicide on one official, Laksamana Megat Sri Rama (hailing from Bintan), who was supposedly motivated by the disembowelment of his own pregnant wife under the orders of Mahmud Shah II.
[3][4] As Sultan Mahmud Shah II was childless at the time of his death, other legends arose related to Raja Kecil, who claimed that he was conceived in a supernatural manner on the eve of the murder.