Maunch

A maunch (from the French manche "sleeve") is a heraldic charge representing a detachable lady's sleeve with a wide pendulous cuff, as was fashionable amongst women in the 13th and 14th centuries. They are found most frequently in English heraldry, occurring to a lesser extent in the heraldry of France, Scotland, and other nations.

Illustration of a maunch from Arthur Fox-Davies' Complete Guide to Heraldry.

In the Middle Ages, it was common for ladies to give their sleeves as favours for knights to wear in tournaments. Thus, heraldic maunches came to symbolise that the armiger was popular with the ladies, or that he loved his wife. Alternatively maunches can occur as canting arms, such as in the arms of the Mohun and Mansel families. In French heraldry, they are referred to as manches mal taillée (meaning "badly cut sleeves") to distinguish them from ordinary sleeves.

In Literature

In Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte Darthur", Sir Lancelot fights in a tournament anonymously as an unknown knight using a white shield with a red sleeve on it. He also affixes Lady Elaine le Blanc's sleeve to his helmet to further disguse himself as he has never worn a lady's token of affection in a tournament.

gollark: This is esolangs. We do not do things manually, unless we do.
gollark: I *will* continue use of `they`, for general convenience and the ability to conveniently ignore gender entirely.
gollark: Your criticism², while interesting, ultimately fails. Consider: you have *responded* to my criticism [see screenshot], despite claiming that this would not occur. This is an evident contradiction.It is also clear that, contra to your original claim #2, gollariosity has *increased* as a result of your actions.
gollark: I wholeheartedly disagree with removal of apioderivative words.1. This is dubious. Current research suggests nonlinear apioformic effects, where high use of apio-derived words leads to increased use due to memetic contamination, rather than a conserved/fixed level of apiodensity.2. I am, in any case, inevitable. Additionally, I do not consider this good.3. This appears to contradict #1 somewhat. We have also proven unable to displace the "apioform"/"bee" meme, despite previous attempts. If you want to remove it, come up with better memetics.
gollark: Wrong.

References
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