[3] With the accession of Queen Mary, he was chosen to succeed the former Carmelite John Bird, who had been deprived because he was married, as Bishop of Chester.

[5] Cotes was consecrated on 1 April 1554 by bishops Stephen Gardiner of Winchester, Edmund Bonner of London, and Cuthbert Tunstall of Durham, and received papal provision on 6 July 1554.

[5] However, he held the post for only a short period of time before he died in c. January 1556.

[5] During the Marian Persecutions he had Protestant George Marsh burnt at the stake as a heretic.

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