Feudal barony of Barnstaple 1386) during his life had settled the feudal barony of Barnstaple by means of an entail on his heirs male, with remainder to the crown. As all his sons from both his marriages died without children, the barony thus became the inheritance of King Richard II (1377–1399), who granted the barony firstly to Robert de Vere, who however was attainted in 1388, when it escheated to the crown. King Richard II then granted it to his half-brother John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter (c. 1352 – 1400), in tail-male. Audley had also been feudal baron of Dartington, inherited from the
Robert Waterton IV. In 1391 he was appointed Master Forester at Pontefract Castle, and in that year accompanied Bolingbroke to the siege of Vilnius. He was with Bolingbroke when he returned to Vilnius in the following year. From 1392 he received a yearly fee from Bolingbroke of £6 13s 4d, and in 1398 Bolingbroke granted him an additional annuity of 10 marks. In 1399 he was Steward and Constable at Pontefract, as well as Constable at Tickhill Castle and Castle Donnington, positions which 'made him a dominant figure in the West Riding of Yorkshire and in north Nottinghamshire'. He remained in these