which the pennoncel of the esquire was added, could not, we think, have been a weapon of offence, but was merely a haft to which the standard of distinction was attached. The pennon, pennoncel, or pencil, as it was variously called, was made in the form of a small and narrow flag. It was the accredited emblem of the esquire. An esquire aspiring to knighthood attached himself to a baron or some greater noble. On attaining the rank of Knight Bachelor he next looked forward to reaching that of Knight Banneret, or Baronet, whose military emblem on the lance was the pennon or paron of the knight shorn of its pointed ends and converted into a rectangular banner. The Knight Baronet was required to serve with a retinue of seventy-five men. In missals and contemporary illustrations their varying pennons are often seen; but we know of no effigy representing them, and are only acquainted with one brass on which the pennon is shown—that of Sir John d'Aubernoun the elder in Stoke d'Abernon Church, Surrey (Fig. 177).
Of the hafted weapon of the soldiery next to the ordinary spear, none can claim greater importance than the guisarme, mention of which is made frequently in the XIIIth and XIVth centuries. Derived, no doubt, from an implement of husbandry, its cutting qualities were found to be of the greatest utility to the foot soldier; for we find constant reference to the sharpening of the guisarmes. Its corrupted name, from bisarme, denotes its dual usage as a cutting and thrusting weapon. It was, however, a weapon of such death-dealing power that early in the XIIIth century an agitation against its use in legitimate warfare was actively supported. Of its early XIVth century form we can give no illustration, but of its late XVth century development many and various examples are known, and will be found illustrated in the chapter dealing with hafted weapons.
Guiart, the XIIIth century writer to whom we have several times referred, in his Chronique Metrique, gives a contemporaneous account of the battle of Courtrai in 1302, making allusions to a type of hafted weapon to which up to now we have not come across, as follows:
A granz bastons pesanz ferrez
A un leur fer agu devant
Vont ceux de France recevant
Tiex bastons, qu'il portent en guerre ·
Ont nom godendac en la terre
Goden-dac, c'est bon jour à dire
Qui en François le veut decrire.
Guiart, describing the merits of this weapon, the godendag, states that it could be used for striking like a club, or for stabbing. Planché, in his
