 At a special council of senior members of royalty and officials, it was agreed that King Buddha Loetla Nabhalai or Rama II (reigned 1809–1824) should succeed his father.After the death of Rama II in 1824, a grand assembly of the royal family, high officers of state and members of the Buddhist monkhood led by the supreme patriarch was convened.The assembly chose a son born of Rama II and a royal consort, a prince who had a proven record, over the king's much younger and less experienced half-brother, Prince Mongkut, who had recently been ordained as a monk.