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
Edmund de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract his mother Margaret de Quincy and on her death would have inherited the Earldom of Lincoln that vested in her. (His father had only been Earl by rights of his wife.) As he predeceased his mother he never became the Earl of Lincoln. He was an important landholder in northern England, with a strategic manor at Stanbury which was important for east-west communication, and as Lord of the Honour of Pontefract he possessed Pontefract Castle. He was brought up at the royal court of Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence, and made a 'Savoyard' marriage to one of