William de Rodyard

He was also Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, and briefly Deputy Lord Treasurer of Ireland.

He already had considerable practical experience of the duties of Dean, as his predecessor Thomas de Chaddesworth had been in failing health for some time prior to his death in 1311 (he had been in the Crown service for 50 years), and William had acted as his deputy.

[1] William, however, withdrew his name from the running, and the death of Thornbury, who drowned while on his way to the Papal Court at Avignon to lobby for his own appointment, "as if Heaven had promulgated its judgment" in the words of a nineteenth-century historian, left Bicknor the undisputed choice as Archbishop.

[3] He granted Alice bail, thus enabling her and one of her co-accused, Basilia, to flee the country, although her servant Petronilla de Meath was burned at the stake.

Later, in 1328/9, he presided over the high-powered Commission of inquiry which cleared Alice's brother-in-law Roger Utlagh, Prior of Kilmainham, and others, of any wrongdoing, despite the accusations levelled against them by the Bishop of Ossory, Richard de Ledrede, the moving force behind the witch hunt.

[1] In about 1328 he was appointed papal legate, with a specific brief to inquire into the conduct of the Irish Franciscans, whose loyalty to the English Crown had been suspected ever since the Bruce invasion of 1315-18.

He was appointed Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas in 1329, but served for only two years, although he was praised for his diligence in carrying out his official duties.