Elizabeth at Edward VI's christening (Wriothesley, Chron. i. 68), and three days later was created Earl of Hertford.
The death of Queen Jane was naturally a blow to Hertford's influence, and in the following year he was described as ‘young and wise,’ but ‘of small power’ (Letters and Papers, XIII. ii. 732). In December he was put on commissions for the trial of the Marquis of Exeter, Lord Montagu, Sir Geoffrey Pole, and others; and in March 1539 he was sent to provide for the defence and fortification of Calais and Guisnes. He returned in April, and on the 16th was granted Chester Place, outside Temple Bar, London. In August Henry VIII and Cromwell spent four days (9–12) with him at Wolf Hall (Wilts Archæol. Mag. xv. App. No. iv). In the same month he received a grant of the Charterhouse at Sheen (Wriothesley, Chron. i. 105). In December he met Anne of Cleves at Calais, and returned with her to London; he wrote to Cromwell that nothing had pleased him so much as this marriage since the birth of Prince Edward (Letters and Papers, XIV. i. 1275).
Cromwell's fall—which, according to the Spanish ‘Chronicle of Henry VIII,’ Hertford instigated—in the following year did not check Hertford's continuous rise in Henry's favour; and Norfolk, now the most powerful member of the council, sought to purchase his friendship by a marriage between his daughter, the Duchess of Richmond, and Hertford's brother Thomas. Throughout 1540 Hertford took an active part in the proceedings of the council, and on 9 Jan. 1540–1 he was elected a knight of the Garter. A few days later he was sent on a fruitless mission to arrange the boundaries of the English Pale in France with the French commissioners (Corr. de Marillac, pp. 257, 266–8; State Papers, viii. 510, 523–30). He then proceeded in February to inspect and report on the defences at Calais (Proc. Privy Council, ed. Nicolas, vii. 130). During Henry's progress in the north from July to November, Hertford, Cranmer, and Audley had the principal management of affairs in London (State Papers, i. 660–90), and in November the earl and the archbishop were the recipients of the charges against Catherine Howard (cf. Chronicle of Henry VIII, ed. Hume, 1889, pp. 82–4). In September 1542 Hertford was appointed warden of the Scottish marches. He served there for a few weeks (21 Oct. to 7 Dec.) under Norfolk, but in November he requested to be recalled on the ground that ‘the country knew not him, nor he them’ (State Papers, v. 222), and Rutland took his place. In December Hertford resumed attendance on the king (ib. ix. 257). On 28 Dec. he appears as lord high admiral, a post which he almost immediately relinquished in favour of John Dudley, viscount Lisle, and in January 1542–3 he was lord great chamberlain. On 1 April he took an active part in procuring the conviction and imprisonment of Norfolk's son, the Earl of Surrey, for eating flesh in Lent and riotous proceedings (Bapst, Deux Gentilhommes Poètes, p. 269). During that year Henry again visited Hertford at Wolf Hall.
Meanwhile in December 1543 the Scots formed a new alliance with France, and declared the treaty with England null and void. On 5 March 1543–4 Hertford was appointed lieutenant-general in the north. He was ordered to proclaim Henry guardian of the infant Scots queen and protector of the realm, and to accuse Cardinal Beaton of causing the war between the two nations (proclamations in Addit. MS. 32654, ff. 49, 58). In the middle of April a deputation of Scottish protestants waited on Hertford with a proposal to raise a force to aid in the invasion and assassinate the cardinal; but Hertford declined to assent on his own authority, and sent the deputation on to Henry. At the end of the month his army embarked at Berwick, and on 3 May the fleet arrived in the Firth of Forth. Next day ten thousand men landed at Leith, and Blackness Castle was taken. On the 5th Lord Evers, with four thousand English horse, arrived from Berwick. The provost offered Hertford the keys of Edinburgh if he would allow all who desired to depart with their effects; but the earl demanded unconditional surrender, proclaiming that he had come to punish the Scots ‘for their detestable falsehood, to declare and show the force of his highness's sword to all such as would resist him.’ The Scots replied defiantly. On the following day Sir Christopher Morris [q. v.] blew in Canongate, and for two days the capital was pillaged without resistance. The English then returned to Leith, seizing the ships in the harbour and lading them with spoil. By the 18th they were back at Berwick, having accomplished no permanent result except further exasperating the Scots and strengthening the French alliance (Hertford's correspondence dealing with this expedition is in Addit. MS. 32654).
A month later Hertford returned to London, and on 9 July he was appointed lieutenant of the kingdom under the queen-regent during Henry's absence in France (State Papers, i. 765; Rymer, xv. 39–40).
