The king returned to England in October 1214 to find the country close to civil war and the breaches with both the church and baronage unhealed. The legate had already felt constrained to issue letters against unnamed conspirators. Des Roches himself was to spend the remainder of the year with the king, supervising the defence of the realm and the importation of foreign mercenaries. In reward for his services as regent he was granted the manor of Halesowen on which to found a Premonstratensian abbey. The king also confirmed the endowment of the Domus Dei at Portsmouth, founded by William of Wrotham with des Roches' co-operation. The collapse of John's campaign in Poitou and the subsequent resistance to scutage had left royal government perilously short of funds. An attempt was made to recover subsidies paid to Ghent and Ypres. Des Roches himself may have advanced the money owing from Ypres, since the town's merchants were urged on several occasions over the following eighteen months to repay the money he had pledged on their behalf. Master Robert Passelewe, subsequently to earn notoriety as a member of des Roches' regime of the 1230s, was engaged on this mission to Flanders, making his earliest appearance in royal administration under the bishop's sponsorship.

The bishop's expenses as regent were accounted at the Exchequer, and later in the autumn he appears to have taken some responsibility for the government of the Channel Islands. In addition, he stood witness to various concessions to clergy dissatisfied with the compensation paid them in 1214.