From 1454 onwards he was appointed to various royal commissions for his county, in 1457 served as High Sheriff of Kent, and in 1460 was named as a justice of the peace.
In 1461 he was one of the notables of Kent ordered to raise forces against the army of Queen Margaret and was awarded an annual pension of 26 pounds.
[1][2] While his son escaped to join Henry Tudor in Brittany,[1][2] he was captured, imprisoned in Newgate, attainted for treason, and then released.
When Henry overthrew the regime of Richard in 1485, the attainder was reversed, his possessions were restored, and he was elected Member of Parliament for Kent.
In 1487 he was appointed to the Privy Council, being granted lands forfeited by the Staffords together with royal licence to empark about 800 hectares in Rolvenden and Cranbrook,[1] as well licence to crenellate his manor of Halden in the parish of Rolvenden that was inherited from his grandmother in addition to other properties at Tenterden and Cranbrook.