Emerasses

Emerasses

Emerasses, or ailettes; also written alettes and alerons(all fr.): small escutcheons affixed to the shoulders of an armed knight. They are named in the inventory of Humphrey de Bohun, taken 1322.

    iiij peire de alettes des armes le Counte de Hereford.                      

They are sometimes shield-shaped, as those of Sir Simon de FELBRIGGE, K.G., on his sepulchral brass at Felbrigge, Norfolk, which are charged with the cross of S.George, and sometimes circular, as those of the TURVILE family at Wolston, Warwickshire, which are charged with the arms of the knight himself.

Square emerasses with the arms of the bearer generally denote that he was a knight banneret, as in the figure of one of the HOWARD family at East Winch church, Norfolk, and in that of Sir Roger de TRUMPINGTON, which is shewn in the margin.