Plausibility check: Disciplined pike formations 11th-14th centuries

I know that in this period, pike formations were primarily used by city militia and the like. That isn't to say there weren't pikemen in the armies of major European monarchs, but they never seemed to make up a dominant portion of their armies.

What I am curious about is if there's a possibility for a major European monarch, like the Holy Roman Emperor or the King of France, to employ large forces of semi-professional and disciplined pikemen in place of the usual heavy cavalry and standard feudal levies. I'm talking something on the level of the later famous Swiss pike squares here.

Was heavy cavalry and the like just too effective and useful in this timeframe to down-prioritize?

Note: Doesn't have to be armed with pikes. Any polearm weapon that's effective in massed formations will do.
 
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First, you need to have open battle to be dominant. And that's the biggest obstacle : before the apparition of both powder artillery and metal projectiles, coupled with royal and great lord political hegemony and the appearance of standing armies, 2/3 of the warfare was about sieges and poliorcetics.

Not that heavy cavalry was exactly super-effective, but it was the most fitting army avaible for medieval warfare.
There was simply no real need of large, standing infantery army.

Then, you oppose standing armies and levies. But they weren't contradictory : IOTL, the same ordinances that created standing armies also reformed feudal levies that still formed easily half to 2/3 of the royal armies.
Basically, you can't get rid of a levy that is issued from the same principle you're basing your power on.

It's not impossible, but you'll need huge social changes.
 
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