[2] In 1547 Waldegrave joined the household of Princess Mary, and was granted the manor and rectory of West Haddon, Northamptonshire.
In 1551 he was imprisoned in the Tower of London by King Edward VI (with Rochester and Francis Englefield), for refusing to carry out the Privy Council's ban on Mary having mass said in her house of Copt Hall, near Epping, Essex.
He was released a year later and on Mary's accession in 1553 he was knighted, admitted to the Privy Council, granted the manors of Navestock, Essex, and Chewton, Somerset, and appointed Master of the Great Wardrobe.
However, after Mary's death a year later, he was dismissed from all his posts and committed to the Tower again, by Queen Elizabeth, for allowing mass to be celebrated in his house.
Waldegrave had a budget of £1300 and a consignment of rich fabrics delivered from the queen's stock by Ralph Sadler.