[2] From the accession of Edward II, Orleton was employed as a diplomat to the papal court, at Avignon from 1309, of Clement V and John XXII.
During his episcopate the great central tower at Hereford, a wonder of its day, was built, but there is no reason to think him responsible for a matter under the jurisdiction of the dean and chapter.
Despite his increasing political involvement with Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer against Edward II, playing a significant role in the events of 1326,[5] Orleton was an effective bishop in Hereford diocese, and reformed the scandalous Wigmore Abbey and also the priory at Abergavenny and St. Guthlac's priory in Hereford.
[8] British historian Ian Mortimer has recently argued that Orleton's sodomy accusations against Edward II in 1326-1327 may have been false, and that they may have been related to contemporary smear campaigns against one's political adversaries, such as previous similar aspersions cast against Pope Boniface VIII by Guillaume de Nogaret, Chancellor to King Philip IV of France, as well as those involved in dispossession of the Knights Templar, during which Orleton was a primary antagonist of the order [9] One assessment stated that: Bishop Adam, wary, unscrupulous, but at the same time vigorous and of unusual ability, played a great part in politics to the end of the wretched King's life.
Orleton is a supporting character in Les Rois maudits (The Accursed Kings), a series of French historical novels by Maurice Druon.