Arundel changed his mind after the Earl died, leaving Alice the heiress presumptive, and with her only brother married to a ten-year-old girl.

However, political conditions had changed by 1330, and over the next few years, Richard was gradually able to reacquire the Earldom of Arundel as well as the great estates his father had held in Sussex and in the Welsh Marches.

Edward met Parliament, and they ordered a new fleet to be granted provisions by the barons of the cinque ports, and commanded by the Admiral of the West, Lord Arundel.

Arundel was a distinguished soldier, in July 1340 he fought at the Battle of Sluys, during which his heavily laden cog grappled with the Spanish fleet.

After a short term as Warden of the Scottish Marches, he returned to the continent, where he fought in a number of campaigns, and was appointed joint lieutenant of Aquitaine in 1340.

In early 1345, Derby and Arundel sailed for Bordeaux as lieutenants of the duchy of Aquitaine, attempting to prevent Prince Jean's designs on the tenantry.

On 23 February 1345 Arundel was made Admiral of the Western Fleet, perhaps for a second time, to continue the policy of arresting merchant ships, but two years later was again superseded.

The king himself and the entourage went to Winchelsea on 15 August 1350, set sail on the cog Thomas on the 28th, for the fleet to chase the Spaniard De la Cerda downwind, which they sighted the following day.

Arundel's fleet had put into Cherbourg for supplies, but no sooner had it departed than the port was blockaded; one squadron was left behind and captured.

He made very large loans to King Edward III but even so, on his death left behind a great sum in hard cash.

The memorial effigies depicting Richard Fitzalan and his second wife Eleanor of Lancaster in Chichester Cathedral are the subject of the poem "An Arundel Tomb" by Philip Larkin.