| Benjamin H. Abbott wrote: |
| Giacomo di Grassi wrote about two-handed swords & about cutting pikes with a partisan or other polearm, but didn't mention the two-handed sword in this context.
Overall, there's amusingly ample evidence for cutting/breaking pikes with single-handed swords & polearms but not that much for doing so with two-handed swords. Di Grassi wrote of two-handed swords as primarily for facing multiple opponents, which is consistent with Iberian montante manuals. Montanteros (for lack of a convenient English word for troops equipped with two-handed swords) did see significant amounts of service in pike-dominant armies, often to defend the ensigns & so on. |
I can definitely buy that it was seen as a good defensive weapon, as you mention it was often described being placed near the ensigns, and in the late 16th century many Landsknecht sergeants apparently still preferred to carry two-handed swords instead of halberds. I'm also pretty sure that it was able to break the heads off pikes some times, (though just because you've cut off the tip doesn't mean that the pike stops being an effective weapon, see livy: https://books.google.com/books?id=kFsKAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=splintered%20shafts&f=false )
I don't see any indication that two-handed swords were ever meant to go on the offensive against unbroken pike formations though, or that anyone thought that was a situation where the two-handed swordsmen would have the advantage or be able to do a significant amount of damage to the enemy formation. I suspect it may have been a good weapon for defending against multiple halberds or multiple pikes in much the same way that George Silver thought that his short sword was a better weapon for defending yourself against polearms than the rapier, yet he still gave the person with a polearm a significant advantage overall. Perhaps a soldier defending his ensigns during the rout would have a better chance fending off 5 enemy pikemen if he had a greatsword instead of a halberd, but in a 1v5 situation he's still going to be at a major disadvantage overall.