Richard is generally thought to be the son of Matthew Orsini, count palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos, and a daughter of the sebastokrator John Komnenos Doukas.

[4] However, according to the testimony of the later chronicler Marino Sanudo Torcello, he was still a minor around 1262, when William II of Villehardouin assumed the regency for the county after his return from captivity in the Byzantine Empire.

If so, Richard was then perhaps the "Count of Cephalonia" referred to in a Venetian attempt to form an alliance of the Frankish rulers of Greece in aid of the beleaguered Latin Empire of Constantinople.

[1][4] In 1291/92, he participated with 100 knights in a campaign to aid the ruler of Epirus, Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas, against the Byzantine forces who were besieging Ioannina, along with 400–500 cavalry from Achaea under Nicholas III of Saint Omer.

[9] Following the death of the Prince of Achaea, Florent of Hainaut, his widow, Princess Isabella of Villehardouin appointed Richard to rule in her stead as bailli and withdrew to the castle of Kalamata.

[10] Richard's tenure appears to have been peaceful as regards the conflict with the Byzantines of Mystras, but the issue of the succession remained open as Isabella had but one daughter, Matilda of Hainaut (born 1293).