Elected along with his brother Francis as one of the two MPs for Helston to the 1628 Parliament, he played little part in its activities before it was dissolved in 1629, ushering in eleven years of Personal Rule.

[2] He spent the next few years travelling in France and the Low Countries, and in 1632 accompanied his distant relative Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester on a diplomatic mission to Denmark-Norway.

[1] On his return to England, Godolphin took up residence at court and became part of the Great Tew circle, a collection of writers and poets clustered around Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland.

[5] He refused an officer's commission and instead served as a trooper in the Western Royalist army commanded by Sir Ralph Hopton, although according to Clarendon his advice was highly valued in spite of his lack of military experience.

He fought at Braddock Down in January, a victory which secured Cornwall for Charles I and allowed Hopton to cross the River Tamar into Devon.

Godolphin was part of a scouting party led by John Berkeley ambushed by Parliamentarian troops while passing through the town of Chagford.