Rochelle (Rokele, Rokesle, Rupella, Rupellis), Richard de la (d. 1276), justiciar of Ireland, was probably the nephew of John FitzGeoffrey (qv), an important member of Henry III's household, with whom much of his early career was associated. In 1242 he accompanied FitzGeoffrey and the king to France and seems to have remained with FitzGeoffrey during his time as seneschal of Gascony (1243). When FitzGeoffrey was named justiciar of Ireland in 1246 Rochelle was retained in the king's service in the lordship, for which he received an annual fee of £20. By 1253 he held substantial lands in Connacht, all of which had been granted to him by FitzGeoffrey, and his holding was increased when he was further endowed with land there in lieu of his salary. Following Henry III's conferral of the lordship of Ireland on his eldest son, Edward, on 14 February 1254, Rochelle was appointed Edward's bailiff in Ireland, and in 1254–5 he acted as deputy justiciar of Ireland during FitzGeoffrey's absence. In November 1254 he was ordered by Edward to turn his attention to the pacification of disturbances in Ulster, and by February 1255 complaints were being made to the king that Rochelle had unjustly levied a large amount of money from the co-parceners of Leinster in order to support his campaigns in the vacant earldom of Ulster. The following April Richard was ordered to raise supplies in Ireland to support Edward in Gascony. In December 1255 a storm of complaints reached Rome from the archbishop of Tuam and his suffragans over FitzGeoffrey's and Rochelle's recognition of the diocese of Annaghdown and their treatment of the province's clergy.
In 1256 Rochelle was appointed justiciar of Ireland, though he seems to have returned to England by August that year. The annals record that in 1256 a conference was held between the justiciar, Alan de la Zouche (d. 1270), and Áed O'Connor (qv) at Rindown in Connacht, where the two parties agreed to a truce on condition that O'Connor's lands in Connacht would not be circumscribed. In 1258 Richard began a brief flirtation with the baronial opposition in England; that November, after FitzGeoffrey's death, he was appointed keeper of the Lord Edward's holdings in Wales, including the city of Bristol, but by the following July he had been relieved of these responsibilities. Shortly afterwards he was back in the lordship and in autumn 1261 (before 28 October) he was once more named justiciar of Ireland. In 1262 he led a large expedition against Áed and Fedlimid O'Connor (qv) and was joined by Walter de Burgh (qv) and John de Verdon (qv) at Roscommon; but his force failed to join battle and eventually the two sides negotiated a short-lived truce. The same year he campaigned ineffectually in Munster.
Rochelle seems to have held the first recorded parliament in Ireland at Castledermot in mid June 1264, and shortly afterwards at a conference at Athlone concluded yet another truce with Fedlimid O'Connor. On 6 December that year, during either a meeting of the great council or a parliament, Rochelle, Theobald Butler (qv) (d. 1285), and John de Cogan were seized by Maurice fitz Maurice FitzGerald (qv) (d. 1286) and Maurice FitzGerald (qv). Their capture was directly related to the outbreak of open war between the Geraldines and de Burghs following factional rivalry in Connacht. Richard and his fellow prisoners were held at Lea and Dunamase castles; during their absence the government was run by Geoffrey de Geneville (qv), who finally secured their release after an assembly of magnates at Dublin on 19 April 1265 patched up peace between the warring parties. In June 1265 the Montfortian regime in England wrote to Rochelle demanding that the Lord Edward, who had recently escaped from captivity in England, should not receive any aid from Ireland. Although Rochelle does not appear to have travelled to England to fight with the royalists, he was doubtless instrumental in helping to raise a force of Anglo-Irish magnates that went to Edward's support in late summer 1265. Rochelle stepped down from the justiciarship in 1266, probably before Michaelmas, and by December he was a member of a commission to assess the tallage recently imposed on London. In 1268 he was one of many to take the crusading vow with the Lord Edward and was contracted to serve him in the Holy Land with a retinue. Between 1270 and c.1274 he was with Edward on crusade, but thereafter he seems to have retired from royal service. He died 6 December 1276.
Before 1244 Rochelle married a woman named Matilda, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. His son Philip disposed of the Connacht lands to the Butlers.