I'm asking around 11-12th century, and I'm mainly interested in knowing how big of a difference did different sword types make in battles. So like, who'd have a better chance of survival in a battle. The one with the two-handed longsword, or the one with short, one-handed?
In the 11-12th centuries, the knightly heavy cavalry is coming into its own; the main weapon for mounted knights is the lance, not necessarily the sword. The swords that they did use were generally one handed arming swords, usually used with a shield. Longswords are more a product of the era of plate armor in the 14th and 15th centuries, when shields became redundant with so much armor.