I stumbled across the article on King Edward III's sword... http://www.myArmoury.com/review_aa_edwardiii.html ...
and I noticed that it differs greatly from the sword that Queen Elizabeth II currently has stashed away in her Royal Collection and calls "King Edward III's sword"...http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/...iiis-sword.

Now the obvious reason for this discrepancy, I suppose, is that the chap had more than one sword. Perhaps one for show, and one for use?

The "Edward III article" acknowledge both.

My best guess would be that he had the shorter, fancier sword as a day-to-day self-defence weapon. While the longer more cumbersome one was drawn in pitched battles.
Unless of course he had more than these two, wich wouldn't surprise me considering his successful military campaigns.

Most men of means have many weapons. Look at the Ralph de Nesle inventory from 1302. He has tons of weapons and armour.

RPM

The gold hilted sword that we often associate with Edward III was very much a battlefield weapon. As an owner of the A&A replica, I can tell you that it's a beast! No doubt Edward used it to great effect, especially from horseback. The Appendix in the back of Records of the Medieval Sword (I think it's Appendix D) describes and shows considerable handwear on the grip, suggesting that he (or someone) definitely used it. I don't know a whole lot of this other much longer "bearing sword" at St. George's Chapel at Windsor but I doubt it was used - or even intended - for combat.

About three years ago I came across a copy of this sword in the Lanes Armoury, Brighton. It was a superb rendition of this weapon with finely defined florets on the cross piece and beautifully enameled crests on either side of the pommel. It was sheathed in its scabbard of black slightly tooled leather The proprietor of the shop did not know its provenance but it was probably of German workmanship. The asking price at the time was £700 English pounds and something I could not afford at the time. Some lucky fellow out there owns it and if he reads this perhaps he could send in some photos.