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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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