pencel

noun

1. (historical)A small pennon; a little banner, flag, or streamer.

   “[…] forty trumpet banners of sarsenet; seven hundred and forty pensills; three hundred and fifty pensills of tarter; four standards of sarsenet with boars; […]”

   “Lances were ornamented with a banderole near the point, which gave them a handsome appearance, these were also called pencells.”

   “The preceding extracts shew that, in some instances, each of the Judas torches was ornamented with three pencels, or little banners, fixed upon as many small spears; […] .”

   “A "pencel" is a small banner usually assigned to squires,[…]But Launfal's characteristically ingenious use of the pencel makes it an object that participates in two distinct systems of registration: the fine, small object that is the sign of amorous devotion in a chivalric context and the somewhat ambiguous index of armigerous status.”

   “Inside Worcester Cathedral, the coffin was transferred to its hearse, a vast, storeyed, wooden structure, painted black and adorned with heraldic escutcheons, badged pennants or ‘pencels’, silk standards of St George, banners of the royal arms of England and Spain, and of Arthur's various titles, from Wales to Ponthieu in Normandy.”

2. (obsolete)A lady's favour or token as worn by a knight.
3. (obsolete, rare)A knight carrying a pennon.