Hardwicke was returned to Parliament for Cambridgeshire in 1865 (succeeding his uncle Eliot Yorke) and served under the Earl of Derby and Benjamin Disraeli as Comptroller of the Household between 1866 and 1868.
He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1866.

In 1873 he succeeded his father in the earldom and to his estates, including Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire, and entered the House of Lords.
The following year he was appointed Master of the Buckhounds under Disraeli, and continued in this post until the government fell in 1880.

In 1879 Lord Hardwicke had a horse race, the Hardwicke Stakes, named after him.

An inveterate gambler, the 5th Earl racked up huge debts with the Agar-Robartes Bank and was obliged to put the Wimpole Hall Estate up for sale by auction in 1891.
When it failed to raise the reserve price Lord Robartes, as Chairman of Agar-Robartes Bank, accepted the estate in settlement.
Hardwicke was returned to Parliament for Cambridgeshire in 1865 (succeeding his uncle Eliot Yorke) and served under the Earl of Derby and Benjamin Disraeli as Comptroller of the Household between 1866 and 1868. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1866.
In 1873 he succeeded his father in the earldom and to his estates, including Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire, and entered the House of Lords. The following year he was appointed Master of the Buckhounds under Disraeli, and continued in this post until the government fell in 1880.
In 1879 Lord Hardwicke had a horse race, the Hardwicke Stakes, named after him.
An inveterate gambler, the 5th Earl racked up huge debts with the Agar-Robartes Bank and was obliged to put the Wimpole Hall Estate up for sale by auction in 1891. When it failed to raise the reserve price Lord Robartes, as Chairman of Agar-Robartes Bank, accepted the estate in settlement.
Charles Yorke, 5th Earl of Hardwicke