A leading Tory politician opposed to the Whig Junto, he was made Southern Secretary in 1699.

He persuaded the young writer and diplomat Matthew Prior to abandon his former Whig allies and vote for the impeachment of his fellow Kit Cat Club member and patron Lord Halifax.

In 1699 he was made Secretary of State for the Southern Department, and on three occasions he was one of the Lords Justices of England.

In 1704 he was dismissed from office by Queen Anne, after which he was involved in some of the Jacobite schemes, using his wife, who was a Roman Catholic, as a useful go-between.

In 1711 the Queen was reluctantly persuaded to bring him back into the Cabinet, but he died immediately afterwards.