Louis 14th of France was pretty into them. And I read that heels were originally won for riding as it helped keeps the riders feet "locked" into the stirrup.
Linking to a couple of previous similar discussions that talk about the beginnings of heels first:
When was the High Heel shoe invented
Men's shoes flatten down to a stacked leather heel during the 18th century. Note that I mean this for English/European fashionable shoes, working shoes wouldn't have had a wooden heel for men but were usually stacked leather. Though there are some taller stacked heels in the 17th and occasionally early 18th century, but mostly it's only a couple of levels. Unfortunately there are not as many surviving mens shoes as women's and many are dated broadly or even incorrectly (there was a revival period around 1880 of colonial style shoes). This pair with a wood heel dates to the first half of the century based on latchet size and toe shape. And these are a good example of a last quarter fashionable style. The small stacked leather heel still continues today with often one to three extra layers in back.