Richard de Ledrede

[3] Petronella was burnt at the stake, but Alice contrived to break out of prison and flee the country, almost certainly with the assistance of her brother-in-law Roger Utlagh (or Outlawe), the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who had always maintained her innocence.

This resulted in a humiliating defeat for Ledrede when a Commission of Inquiry, which was headed by William de Rodyard, a future Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas and included most of the magnates of Ireland, both lay and clerical, declared Roger to be a pious and zealous Christian, and cleared him entirely of any suggestion of heresy.

[4] Ledrede was in turn summoned before the Irish Privy Council to justify his actions, and also to account for certain charges he had made against Alexander de Bicknor, Archbishop of Dublin, but instead he fled the country in order to plead his case at the Papal Court.

Bicknor enjoyed the goodwill of King Edward III, who sent a message to the Papal Court describing Ledrede ominously as a man notorious for stirring up rebellion, and urging them not to believe anything he said.

Ledrede again incurred the royal displeasure in 1355–56 when he excommunicated William de Bromley, the Lord Treasurer of Ireland, apparently in order to prevent him from collecting the King's revenue in the Diocese, resulting in a serious financial loss to the Crown.