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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
This device, though at the time not so named, was a key
factor in English victory over the French at Agincourt.
The French made a very unwise choice of terrain. They chose one end of a sort of figure of eight shaped plain, with
a constriction caused by waist high bushes separating them from the English. The English King Henry V had archers cut
long staves, sharpen the ends, and drive them into ground
with one end pointing towards the French, so that when the French cavalry tried to attack the English archers, the hidden spears disabled their horses, and the English archers
were able to kill hundreds of the French.
I resisted temptation to say the spears made the French cavalry "hors de combat".
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
For pictures of a type of cheval de frise see: http://www.cvco.org/sigs/reg64/pioneer.htmlThis is not the type used at Agincourt
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
From the Internet:
"The Cheval de Frise (horse of Friesland) was the fore-runner of barbed wire entanglements used in warfare. It was a fortification comprised of timber pierced and traversed with wooden spikes pointed with iron five or six feet long and used for stopping a breach, defending a passage or making entrenchments to stop cavalry. They were first used by the Prince of Orange in the siege of Groningen, Friesland in 1594 from whence the name. "
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
From the AWAD Newsletter: http://www.megalithomania.com/irishgenius/zDunAengusCdF.htm When I was at Dun Aengus this June, I do not recall seeing this, possibly because my group approached the fortress from across the fields and over many, many rock walls. Anyone else notice it?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Consuelo: Thanks for the URL. It will keep my interest for a long time.
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Years ago when I visited Ireland we came across a field of "mini-dolmens" looking sort of like this.
___
/../
We didn't have anyone to ask and I have often wondered if they were a joke or an art piece or someones hobby. Each one was about 12 - 18 inches high. For a moment I thought your photo was the same but in my field they were all three parters, two walls and a roof. Any ideas out there? campground for the wee folk??
edit. Ha it worked. It's really hard to draw when the finished post isn't the same shape as the page you draw on
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
They were probably 15 metres high originally, but all but the top has been buried by leprechauns or Irish pixies. *Or...they might have *built by pixie druids!
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
pixie druidsor is that "dixbie pruids"?! 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
re: edit. Ha it worked. It's really hard to draw when the finished post isn't the same shape as the page you draw onthat is why the Pre commands exist... use pre and /pre in square brackets, of course, and you can retain any extra spacing, ect, that you want in a post. Otherwise, HTML tends to ignore (delete) extra spaces. so if you want this shape x x
x x
x
x x
x x
and don't use the the pre command, you end up with
x x
x x
x
x x
x x
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