KNIGPTTLY EFFIGIES AT SANDWICH AND ASH. 305 The use of this "accossoire" has somowliat puzzled anti- quarian writers. In the present day the French archae<>lof;ists confess that it is " difficile d'cn expli(|uer I'usage." (Annalcs Arch^oL, vol. iv., 212.) Some writers have considered it as a simply defensive provision ; others look upon it as an ensign, to indicate to his followers the place of a leader in the field. Against the notion that it was merely armorial, may be urged that in many cases it has no heraldic bearing at all : sometimes it has a cross only, sometimes a diaper pattern, and sometimes it is quite blank. In vellum-paintings it is often seen worn by knights in the tilt ; where the heraldic bearings already exhibited on the shield, crest, and surcoat of the rider and the caparisons of the horse, would to no useful purpose be repeated on the ailette. In the case of the Clehongre example quoted above, the outside fastening of the point does not seem consistent with the idea of armorial display on the wing beneath. Italian writers, however, continue to call these adjuncts Bandiere (Cibrario, Sigilli de' Principi di Savoia). But in Germany they are called Tar- tschen (Hefner : Trachten), and their purpose of shields seems most in accordance with the numerous ancient evidences in which they appear. The knights of the middle ages, indeed, not content with their panoj^ly of steel, seem to have fortified themselves with a complete outwork of shields. Thus we have the ailettes, the shield proper, the garde-hras or elbow- shield, the shoulder-shield, the BeinscJiiene or shield for the legs, the vamplate on the lance, and the steel front of the saddle, which was in fact but another shield for the defence of the knight's body. The close analogy of the ailettes (considered as defences) with those curious upright pieces of steel on the shoulders, so frequent in the suits of Henry Vlllth's time, will at once be recognised. Hefner has observed that the introduction of the ailette must be attributed to the French, from the name, " aisles," or "aislettes," under which they appear in contemporary records. Should we not rather say to a nation using the French language 1 Both the French and Latin names have been preserved to us in documents of their own time. In 1313, the Inventory of the effects of Piers Gaveston (New Fa3dera, vol. ii., pt. L, p. 203) has : — " Item, autres divers garnementz des armes le dit Pieres, ovek les alettes garniz et frettez de perles."
