That doesn’t really refute the core point I’m trying to make, but also polearms never really “eclipsed” swords. Sure a spear is much easier for a less trained peasant to use but ultimately a spear or polearm is absolutely garbage against a trained opponent closer than the effective range of your weapon or on a large scale battle where you don’t have enough space to maneuver it. If anything crossbows and later guns would eclipsed swords because it’s very easy to train someone how to use those quickly, and they blew through armor.
Spear-wielding infantry continued to exist well into the gunpowder era, whereas swords were pretty much only used by cavalry at that point (ironically the disappearance of armour made swords relevant again, in the form of the sabre)
That doesn’t really refute the core point I’m trying to make, but also polearms never really “eclipsed” swords. Sure a spear is much easier for a less trained peasant to use but ultimately a spear or polearm is absolutely garbage against a trained opponent closer than the effective range of your weapon or on a large scale battle where you don’t have enough space to maneuver it. If anything crossbows and later guns would eclipsed swords because it’s very easy to train someone how to use those quickly, and they blew through armor.
Spear-wielding infantry continued to exist well into the gunpowder era, whereas swords were pretty much only used by cavalry at that point (ironically the disappearance of armour made swords relevant again, in the form of the sabre)