The Black Arrow: A Tale of The Two Roses - Characters

Characters

• Richard (Dick) Shelton – (the protagonist) son of the late Sir Harry Shelton, heir of Tunstall. He is "not yet eighteen" in May, 1460, the time period of the first part of the narrative. He is described as "sun-browned and grey-eyed." He is looked upon as the leader of the Black Arrow outlaws in Shoreby as they attempt to rescue Joanna Sedley from Sir Daniel. He is knighted by Richard Crookback in the course of the Battle of Shoreby.
• Clipsby – a saucy Tunstall peasant. He is the first character in the novel to alert Dick to the dishonesty of his guardian Daniel Brackley: "Y'are a lad; but when ye come to a man's inches, ye will find ye have an empty pocket."
• Bennet Hatch – a middle aged retainer of Sir Daniel Brackley, and bailiff of the Tunstall hundred. He is described as "a brown-faced, grizzled fellow, heavy of hand and grim of mien."
• Nicholas Appleyard – a septuagenarian veteran of the Battle of Agincourt (1415): "his face was like a walnut-shell, both for colour and wrinkles; but his old grey eye was still clear enough, and his sight unabated."
• Sir Oliver Oates – the local Tunstall parson and Sir Daniel's clerk. A "tall, portly, ruddy, black-eyed man of near fifty." He is portrayed in the novel as a cowardly sycophant of Sir Daniel Brackley. His knowledge of the law facilitates Sir Daniel's political and financial gain.
• Sir Daniel Brackley – (the antagonist) a self-serving, unscrupulous knight, notoriously known for changing allegiances from Lancaster to York and vice versa "continually" as it suited him to obtain "some increase of fortune." He also garnered income by taking rents from lands that came into his hands. He enriched himself by obtaining wardships of rich heirs in their minority such as Dick Shelton and procuring rich marriages for them. His vacillating character resembles that of the historic Earl Thomas Stanley and his brother Sir William Stanley in the Wars of the Roses. The ending of the respective surnames is the same: "-ley." Sir Daniel was different from the Stanleys in that he was not a simple opportunist but a devious, avaricious villain. He is described by the author as having a bald head and a "thin, dark visage." He is also described in positive terms as "a very merry knight, none merrier in England" and as a good military leader. His lady wife appears in one or two episodes of the novel.
• The Walsinghams – Stevenson's renaming of the Woodvilles of the Wars of the Roses. They do not play a part in the narrative of The Black Arrow, but it is intimated that in the recent past they had exercised lordship and received rents in Tunstall and Kettley. They are described as "poor as thieves." The Woodville family during the Wars of the Roses was poor in being composed largely of commoners, ennobled by marriage under Edward IV of England.
• Joanna Sedley – (the heroine) also known as John Matcham, the ward of Lord Foxham but kidnapped by Sir Daniel. She is sixteen in May, 1460. Her softness and diminutive frame are constantly alluded to in Book 1 as unbecoming to her masculine attire, but later this is set in contrast to her appearance and bearing as a noble young lady: "she, who had seemed so little and so awkward in the attire of Matcham, was now tall like a young willow, and swam across the floor as though she scorned the drudgery of walking."
• Selden – Sir Daniel's retainer and right hand man in Kettley. He is a dear friend of Bennet Hatch and Dick Shelton. Sir Daniel dispatched him and six others to recapture Joanna Sedley after her flight, but they are killed in a Black Arrow ambush.
• Will Lawless – a "Friar Tuck" type of outlaw, member of the Black Arrow Fellowship, who has been many things in life, including a seaman and a Franciscan friar. He is said to have a big body, and he is fond of drinking. He helps Dick Shelton visit his beloved Joanna by disguising him as a friar. The final paragraph tells how he ended life as a friar. As a friar he assumes a name that indicates his conversion from thief to honest man, Brother Honestus.
• Ellis Duckworth – organiser of the Black Arrow Fellowship to avenge Harry Shelton, Simon Malmesbury, and himself. He was blamed for the death of Harry Shelton, and he was rumored to have been an agent of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick.
• Kit (Christopher) Greensheve– a Black Arrow outlaw who like Lawless is closely associated with Dick Shelton.
• John Capper – a Black Arrow outlaw closely associated with Dick Shelton.
• Goody Hatch – wife of Bennet Hatch, who is put in charge of Joanna Sedley when she comes to the Moat House with Dick Shelton.
• Lord Foxham– a local Yorkist magnate, guardian of Joanna Sedley, who joins with Dick Shelton and the outlaws in their failed attempt to rescue her.
• Sir John Hamley– kinsman of Lord Foxham and his intended bridegroom for his ward Joanna Sedley. At the end of the novel he becomes betrothed to Alicia Risingham.
• Hawksley – Lord Foxham's retainer. He cares for his master on The Good Hope after the failed attempt to rescue Joanna Sedley from the house by the sea.
• Earl Risingham – a local Lancastrian magnate, uncle of Alicia Risingham, killed in the Battle of Shoreby.
• Alicia Risingham – niece of Earl Risingham and friend, confidant, and companion of Joanna Sedley. She coquettishly poses herself for romantic consideration by Dick Shelton, who graciously declines in favor of his true love Joanna. She is so short of stature that she jokingly refers to herself as a "dwarf."
• Lord Shoreby – a local Lancastrian magnate, killed by Black Arrow outlaws in Shoreby Abbey Church to prevent his marriage to Joanna Sedley.
• Captain Arblaster – the owner of the ship The Good Hope, stolen by Shelton and the Black Arrow Fellowship. Dick's favor with Richard Crookback allows him to plead successfully for his life after the Battle of Shoreby, but this in turn causes Dick to fall out of favor with Crookback. Arblaster ends life as a pensioner in Tunstall Hamlet.
• Tom – Captain Arblaster's first mate, who is killed in the Battle of Shoreby. It is Tom who is first suspicious of Dick and Lawless as they are making their way to the "Goat and Bagpipes," and it is he that succeeds in catching Dick. Arblaster and Pirret do not heed his warning against Dick tricking them through his Ali Baba tale.
• Master Pirret – friend of Captain Arblaster, whose greed and credulity allow Dick to escape from him, Arblaster, and Tom.
• Richard Crookback – Richard Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, future Richard III of England (a real historical person)
• Sir William Catesby – Richard Crookback's retainer (a real historical person).