It first appeared as a serial in 1883 with the subtitle "A Tale of Tunstall Forest" beginning in Young Folks; A Boys' and Girls' Paper of Instructive and Entertaining Literature, vol.

[1] He alludes to the time gap between the serialisation and the publication as one volume in 1888 in his preface "Critic [parodying Dickens's 'Cricket'] on the Hearth": "The tale was written years ago for a particular audience..."[4] The Paston Letters were Stevenson's main literary source for The Black Arrow.

Outlaws in Tunstall Forest organised by Ellis Duckworth, whose weapon and calling card is a black arrow, cause Dick to suspect that his guardian Sir Daniel Brackley and his retainers are responsible for his father's murder.

Having been dispatched to Kettley, where Sir Daniel was quartered, and sent to Tunstall Moat House by return dispatch, he falls in with a fugitive, Joanna Sedley, disguised as a boy with the alias of John Matcham: an heiress kidnapped by Sir Daniel to obtain guardianship over her and to retain his control over Richard by marrying her to him.

As they travel through Tunstall Forest, Joanna tries to persuade Dick to turn against Sir Daniel in sympathy with the Black Arrow outlaws, whose camp they discover near the ruins of Grimstone manor.

While shadowing Sir Daniel, Dick and the outlaws encounter another group of spies interested in Joanna: her lawful guardian, Lord Foxham, and his retainers.

They discover that the next morning Sir Daniel will give Joanna in marriage to his fellow Lancastrian magnate, Lord Shoreby, and word is sent to Ellis Duckworth, the outlaw chief.

When Black Arrow archers disrupt the wedding, killing the bridegroom, Dick and Lawless are turned over to Sir Daniel.

Dick claims sanctuary from Sir Daniel in the abbey church, but, in the end, yields himself and Lawless to a more impartial judge, the Lancastrian magnate, Earl Risingham.

Crookback knights Dick on the field of battle and, following their victory, gives him fifty horsemen to pursue Sir Daniel, who has escaped Shoreby with Joanna.

In the early morning of his wedding day Dick encounters a fugitive Sir Daniel trying to enter the Holywood seaport to escape to France or Burgundy.

Because it is his wedding day, Dick does not want to soil his hands with Sir Daniel's blood, so he simply bars his way by challenging him either to hand-to-hand combat or alerting a Yorkist perimeter patrol.

Lawless is pensioned and settled in Tunstall hamlet, where he does a volte face by returning to the Franciscan order and taking the name Brother Honestus.

[26] The important time indicator is the Battle of Wakefield, 30 December 1460, which Stevenson describes in the first chapter of Book 3: Months had passed away since Richard Shelton made his escape from the hands of his guardian.

The Yorkists defeated and dispersed, their leader butchered on the field, it seemed, – for a very brief season in the winter following upon the events already recorded, as if the House of Lancaster had finally triumphed over its foes.

"[29] Stevenson follows William Shakespeare in retrojecting Richard of Gloucester into an earlier period of the Wars of the Roses and portraying him as a dour hunchback—Stevenson: "the formidable hunchback.

Some day, I will re-tickle the Sable Missile, and shoot it, moyennant finances [tr: "for a [financial] consideration"], once more into the air; I can lighten it of much, and devote some more attention to Dick o' Gloucester.

He, as a Lancastrian and ardent supporter of King Henry VI of England, held Harlech Castle against the Yorkists from 1465 to 1468 during the first part of Edward IV's reign.

Praise for The Black Arrow is rare among literary critics over its 140-year history, though the novelist John Galsworthy wrote that it was "a livelier picture of medieval times than I remember elsewhere in fiction.

"[39] In the introduction to the 2003 Signet Classic edition, Professor Gary Hoppenstand argues that The Black Arrow has been underappreciated, saying it is a "rich psychological novel" that is "deeper and more textured" than Treasure Island: "Those, however, who approach The Black Arrow as a rich psychological novel, similar in a number of ways to Stevenson's gothic masterpiece, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, will find a rewarding experience, one that offers insight into the complexity of the human condition.

"[40] On 18 December 2007 Penguin Books issued an historic first annotated edition of The Black Arrow with the introduction and notes by John Sutherland.

[46] Half of Robert Louis Stevenson's original manuscripts are lost, including those of Treasure Island, The Black Arrow and The Master of Ballantrae.

[47] The text as it appeared in print for the first time in 1883 as a serial in Young Folks: A Boys' and Girls' Paper of Instructive and Entertaining Literature, volumes 22–23, June–October, 1883 has been made available through the University of South Carolina.