Picture showing up at an important event in a custom outfit, only to see someone else wearing the same thing. Now, imagine that outfit is the only way your friends can tell you apart from your enemies during a chaotic sword fight. In the Middle Ages, this wasn’t just embarrassing; it could mean the difference between life and death, or between keeping your property and losing it.
Today, heraldry might seem like a fixed art form, but its past is full of intense legal disputes. The most important was the famous case of Scrope v. Grosvenor (1385–1390). This case did more than resolve a personal conflict; it set the legal idea that a coat of arms is a type of property, called an "incorporeal hereditament," that can be protected in court. This decision ended the practice of people simply choosing their own arms in England.
The Era of Self-Assumption
At first, armory was like the "Wild West" of symbols. Landowners and knights chose their own arms, mainly so they could be recognized in battle when helmets hid their faces (Fox-Davies 1909, p. 17). There was no official list to check. If you liked a design and no one nearby used it, you could claim it.
As travel became more common and armies gathered for far-off battles, knights from different regions started to meet. This led to repeated designs. Early rules for these conflicts followed the civil law of Bartolus a Saxo Ferrato, which said that if someone in France used a coat of arms, it didn’t harm someone in Germany who used the same one (Stevenson 1914, pp. 25-30). But in England, as the Crown gained more control, stricter rules were needed.
The Great Dispute of 1385
The most well-known case happened in 1385, during Richard II’s campaign in Scotland. Sir Richard le Scrope, Baron of Bolton, was surprised to see Sir Robert Grosvenor from Cheshire using his coat of arms: Azure, a bend Or (a blue shield with a gold diagonal stripe).
Arms of Sir Richard le Scrope of Bolton and the arms of Sir Robert Grosvenor from Cheshire
Scrope questioned Grosvenor’s right to use the coat of arms. The case went to the High Court of Chivalry, led by the Constable and Marshal of England. The trial was huge and lasted five years. Records from the case, kept in the Tower of London, include statements from John of Gaunt, Owen Glendower, and the poet Geoffrey Chaucer.
Chaucer’s testimony brought some interest to the otherwise dry legal case. He said he had seen Scrope wearing those arms before the town of Retters in France. He also recalled walking on Friday Street in London and seeing a new sign outside an inn with those arms. When he asked about it, he was told they belonged not to Scrope, but to a Cheshire knight named Grosvenor. Chaucer said that was the first time he had heard the name (Lower 1845, pp. 32-33).
The King’s Final Word
At first, the Court tried to find a middle ground. They agreed that Scrope had the right to the arms but said Grosvenor could use them too if he added a “plain bordure argent” (a silver border) to make them different.
Suggested Arms for Grosvenor by the Court of chivalry
This decision mattered because it recognized Grosvenor’s right to use the arms, but treated him as the junior party. Grosvenor did not want to accept a mark that usually showed a family branch or relative, so he appealed to the King. This was a mistake. Richard II rejected the Court’s compromise. The King said a bordure was a mark for a family member, not enough to set apart someone unrelated by blood (Boutell 1867, pp. 206–207).
Grosvenor was forced to abandon the design entirely. Instead, he adopted Azure, a garb Or (a golden wheat sheaf). This was a prudent choice; the "garb" was the symbol of the Earls of Chester, to whom the Grosvenor family had been feudal adherents, and it helped solidify their territorial status even as they lost their original arms (Cussans 1882, p. 29 and Woodward 1896, p. 359).
Final Arms of Grosvenor. (WappenWiki)
Shift to Regulation
The Scrope v. Grosvenor decision was a watershed moment. It established that a man could possess a definitive legal right to his arms that was enforceable against others. More importantly, it solidified the principle that the Sovereign had supreme jurisdiction and control over armorial bearings (Fox-Davies 1900, pp. 36, 38).
This legal precedent led to a complete ban on self-assumed arms. In 1417, Henry V sent an order to county sheriffs, saying no one could use arms unless they could prove they had inherited them or received a special grant. He made an exception for those who had fought with him at the Battle of Agincourt, treating military service as proof of gentility (Fox-Davies 1900, pp. 46–47).
The College of Arms wasn’t officially created until 1484, but this trial marked the end of knights choosing any arms they wanted. It set the stage for Henry V’s 1417 rule, which banned taking arms without a grant or proof of family history (Friar 1987, pp. 25, 105).
The Scrope case showed that a coat of arms was more than just decoration, it was a kind of legal property, a "tessera of their noble descent" as Nisbet calls it, protected by the highest authority in the country (Nisbet 1816, p. 16).
Sources
- Boutell, Charles. English Heraldry. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1867.
- Cussans, John Edwin. The Handbook of Heraldry. London: Chatto & Windus, 1882.
- Dobson, Susannah. Historical Anecdotes of Heraldry and Chivalry. Worcester: Holl and Brandish, 1795.
- Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles. A Complete Guide to Heraldry. London: T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1909.
- Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles. The Right to Bear Arms. London: Elliot Stock, 1900.
- Friar, Stephen. A Dictionary of Heraldry. New York: Harmony Books, 1987.
- Lower, Mark Antony. The Curiosities of Heraldry. London: John Russell Smith, 1845.
- Nisbet, Alexander. A System of Heraldry. Edinburgh: Blackwood, Rodwell, and Martin. 1816.
