Robert le Poer

Arnold's support for the alleged leader of the local coven of witches, his relative Alice Kyteler, gained him the enmity of Richard de Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory, who was the prime mover behind the Trials.

Possibly his appointment marked a decline in the influence of Ledrede, who was English by birth and bitterly unpopular with most of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, and even with his clerical colleagues, including the Archbishop of Dublin, Alexander de Bicknor.

[6] His first Crown office was as Chamberlain of North Wales in 1323; in 1327 he became Lord High Treasurer of Ireland, with a salary of £40 a year.

In 1338 he served briefly as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland); the following year he was reappointed Chief Baron and remained in that office until 1344.

[8] In 1342 and 1344 he received extra payments from the Crown for his good services, and in particular for his several journeys to County Meath as Chancellor.