They’re actually the well-known French fighting heels. Developed during the Napoleonic era, they were an infantry weapon which were much feared by the enemies of the First Empire. Sadly, the epidemic of sprained ankles caused by their usage by under-trained troops mitigated much of their effectiveness, and the failure of the charge of the Old Guard at the Battle of Waterloo, widely thought to have been caused by the use of these shoes, put the final nail in the coffin of this technology.