Digby uncovered details of Spanish pensions paid to the late Earl of Salisbury, the naval officer William Monson, Lady Jane Drummond, and the Countess of Suffolk.

At the Council of Peers held at York in September 1640, the King showed an unprecedented willingness to listen to Bristol's criticism of his policy, and agreed to his advice that a Parliament must be summoned.

After the collapse of the attempt at compromise Bristol came increasingly to be seen as a "hardline" royalist: as such Parliament imprisoned him after the outbreak of the Civil War, although he was later allowed to join the King at Oxford.

Clarendon, who knew and liked Bristol, gave this sketch of him:[9] "Of a grave aspect, of a presence which drew respect, and a very handsome man who by the extraordinary favour of King James to his person was Ambassador to Spain before he was 30.

A modern historian praises him as the greatest servant of the English Crown of his generation, but humorously calls him "the terrible earl", on account of his hot temper and intimidating personality.