Sometimes they couldn’t.
One study showed that the French archers at Agincourt were actually shooting loaves of French Bread at the British.
The aerodynamics wouldn’t work for croissants, though.
ping
The French managed to raise a battalion of archers just as good as the English. Problem was, when the Serfs became armed they no longer considered themselves serfs but FREE MEN. When the wars were over, they resisted returning to serfdom.
So, turning serfs into archers was frowned upon.