Later Career
Appointed envoy-extraordinary to Germany in summer 1680, Bertie was thus out of the country when a new Parliament was convened in October. He traveled through many of the German states before being recalled after the dissolution of the Oxford Parliament in March 1681. Returning to England in June, he succeeded that August as Treasurer of the Ordnance. With the accession of James II, Bertie was again returned as Member of Parliament for Stamford. Around this time, he also built a new country house in Uffington, and was appointed to local posts in Boston and Stamford.
Bertie apparently kept the favour of James throughout his change of policy and the issue of the Declaration of Indulgence, and was a court candidate for the abortive 1688 elections. However, he was in Yorkshire with Danby when the latter was preparing to bring in William of Orange. He went down to London in October to allay James' fears, and was considered as a mediator between James and Danby. His connection with Danby allowed him to retain influence after the Glorious Revolution and he continued to hold his seat in Parliament. He supported Danby's proposal to declare the throne vacant and settle it upon Mary.
Although Danby, now Marquess of Carmarthen, had now returned to eminence, Bertie was unable to achieve significant political power, being passed over as Secretary to the Treasury in 1691. He held a number of minor posts, including secretary to the Justice in Eyre south of the Trent (then his half-brother James Bertie, 1st Earl of Abingdon) in 1693. While he signed the Association in 1696, he remained a reliable Tory, opposing the attainder of Sir John Fenwick that year.
With the final fall of Carmarthen, now Duke of Leeds, in 1699, Bertie lost his office as Treasurer of the Ordnance to Harry Mordaunt, but regained it in 1702 with the accession of Anne. His support for an Occasional Conformity Bill in 1704 was probably the cause of his dismissal in 1705. Bertie opposed the impeachment of Henry Sacheverell in 1710. He had suffered from a "bad stomach" for much of that year, and died in March 1711, and was buried at Uffington. His son, Charles, replaced him as Member of Parliament for Stamford.
Read more about this topic: Charles Bertie (senior)
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