Kingston served at the head of a thousand Gloucestershire men under the Duke of Norfolk in the suppression of the Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536–7, and fought in the defeat (13 October 1536) of the rebels at Louth.
He held offices about the court, such as that of serjeant of the king's hawks, and received land formerly belonging to the suppressed monasteries in Gloucestershire, including a regrant of the site of Flaxley Abbey.
[1] In 1549 Kingston was granted the rank of provost marshal by King Edward VI and was involved in the suppression of the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549.
After the main rebellion had been defeated, John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford ordered Kingston to take charge of pacification operations in the West Country.
When Lady Jane Grey succeeded Edward, she sent orders to Kingston and Sir John St. Loe to levy forces and march towards Buckinghamshire (16 July 1553), but her reign was over before they had time to obey.
[1] The next year, 1556, Kingston was concerned in a plot to rob the exchequer in order to provide funds for the conspiracy devised by Sir Henry Dudley with the object of making Elizabeth queen and marrying her to Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon.
[9][10] Six confederates were executed, but Kingston died, possibly by his own hand, on 14 April 1556 at Cirencester, or on his way from Devon to London to stand trial.