At the time of the duke of Suffolk's murder, Beaumont had been an associate of the by now recalcitrant Richard, duke of York, having been one of the duke's feoffees in May 1436 and March 1441, and possibly even acting as the duke's councillor on occasion. He had also joined York on the king's council during York's first Protectorate (March 1453 – January 1454). But as York drew further from the court, so Beaumont appears to have moved towards it; although he appears to have not been present at the first battle of St Albans in 1455, he had already stood with the king against York at the latter's stand-off with king at Dartford in 1452, and then sat in judgment on some of his men. He eventually joined the anti-Neville faction at court; although his wife was a Neville, her family had by now aligned themselves with the duke of York. He was amongst the party of lords that reported to parliament that the king was sick and they 'coud not rouse him' in March 1454. He was also an arbitrator between York and the king's party, headed by the duke of Somerset after the king's recovery in 1454; although Griffiths says not a 'strictly impartial' one. Indeed, Griffiths suggests that his appointment to the council on 15 April 1454, after the king's recovery and York's dismissal, was part of a concerted attempt to 're-balance' the council after the protectorate. He was even reported (although wrongly) to have been recruiting an army to march against London in 1454. He was one of the few Lords Temporal to remain in Henry VI's council in the closing years of the decade, by which time he was the queen's chief steward. He was also part of the royal commission set up by parliament in July 1455 to examine royal household expenditure; the trust the Queen placed in him was demonstrated on 28 January 1457 when he was appointed to the council of the young Prince of Wales, which had responsibility for his estate management, expenditure, personnel, and administration.