Brewer's: Chevaux de Frise

(French). Horses of Friesland. A beam filled with spikes to keep off horses, so called from its use in the siege of Groningen, Friesland, in 1594. A somewhat similar engine had been used before, but was not called by the same name. In German it is “a Spanish horseman” (ein Spanischer Reiter).

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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