On 3 June 1610, he was made Knight of the Bath at the creation of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales.

On 28 December 1624, he was created Earl of Bolingbroke (a manor that had belonged to the Beauchamp family, from which he was descended).

On 28 August 1640, he signed the petition of the twelve peers, attributing the evils of the day to the absence of parliaments, and urging Charles I to summon one.

He remained with the Long Parliament in 1642 when Charles retired to York, and, in February 1642–43, was named by the parliament lord lieutenant of Bedfordshire; in this capacity he took an active part in raising the militia and providing for the safety of the shire.

In the same year he took the Solemn League and Covenant, and was appointed a lay member of the Westminster Assembly.