In 1315, he was sent to Northumberland with authority to summon the barons, knights, and men-at-arms of the northern counties to meet him to concert measures for securing the border against the incursions of the Scots, and in the following year was despatched on a mission to the court of the pope for the purpose of 'expediting certain arduous matters touching the realm of Scotland and the said pope,’ but was recalled when he had got no further than Dover. He was assigned as one of the justices for the county of Hertford in 1317.