The area known to the British at the time as Central India is now occupied by parts of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan states. A large part of it was included in the region of Bundelkhand named after its former Bundela rulers. In 1857, it was administered as the Central India Agency and consisted of six large and almost 150 small states, nominally ruled by Maratha or Mughal princes, but actually controlled to a greater or lesser degree by Residents or Commissioners appointed by the British East India Company. Opposition to British control centred on the state of Jhansi, where the Rani Lakshmibai, widow of the last Maratha prince, opposed the British annexation of the state under the notorious doctrine of lapse. (Jhansi and Lalitpur districts are now in the state of Uttar Pradesh.)