One of the earliest heraldic cases brought in England, the case resulted from two different knights in King Richard II's service, Richard Scrope, 1st Baron Scrope of Bolton, and Sir Robert Grosvenor, discovering they were using the same undifferenced coat of arms, blazoned Azure, a bend Or.

When Scrope brought an action, Grosvenor maintained his family had worn these arms since his ancestor had come to England with William the Conqueror in 1066.

The case was brought before the Court of Chivalry and presided over by Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, the Constable of England.

Several hundred witnesses were heard, including John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster,[1]: 163  Geoffrey Chaucer (who spoke on behalf of Sir Richard Scrope), himself a close friend of the Duke of Lancaster and a sometime member of his court;[1] and a then little-known Welshman called Owain Glyndŵr, who gave his evidence with others at the Church of St John the Baptist in Chester on 3 September 1386.

During the reign of Edward III in the Hundred Years' War, Grosvenor had previously challenged the right of a Cornish knight, Thomas Carminow, to bear the arms while serving in France in 1360.

As stated in the trial records, Cornwall was then still considered a separate country, "a large land formerly bearing the name of a kingdom.

[7] A thoroughbred racehorse, born in 1877 and owned by Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, was named Bend Or in allusion to the case.