[1] His mother, who died shortly after his birth, seems to have let him enough of an inheritance to be comfortably provided for, including the manor of Nutley in Long Crendon.
[3] Appointed a commissioner of assessment for Buckinghamshire and a justice of the peace for Oxfordshire in 1679, he and Lewis defeated the two exclusionist candidates, Trenchard and Edward Norton at Westbury in the general election of October 1679.
[3] At the 1681 election, he stood instead as an uncontested court candidate for Woodstock, where his brother had built up an interest through the Norreys estates and his office as Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire.
He was commissioned a captain of Oxfordshire militia horse before 1681, and after the discovery of the Rye House Plot in 1683, he was employed in searching for arms secreted by the conspirators.
[1] After the outbreak of the Monmouth Rebellion, Bertie and his half-brother Richard were commissioned captains on 18 June to raise independent troops of horse.
[9] The troop was disbanded in December;[1] the independent troops that were not incorporated into existing regiments were disbanded after the collapse of the rebellion,[7] Wood records that Henry and Richard were among the officers deprived of their commissions for voting in the House of Commons in favor of the address to James II against employing Roman Catholic officers.
[1][5] In September 1688, his nephew Lord Norreys treated some of the country gentlemen of Oxfordshire to solicit support for Henry in the anticipated elections.
He was not active as a committeeman, and his time there was principally distinguished by a violent quarrel with Sir William Harbord over some remarks by the latter aimed at Bertie, about (royal) pensioners and the Westbury election.
The matter ran close to a duel, and Bertie had to be secured by the serjeant-at-arms until Speaker Trevor extracted pledges from them not to renew the quarrel.