The important time indicator is the Battle of Wakefield, 30 December 1460, which Stevenson describes in the first chapter of Book 3: It is because Richard Crookback (later Richard III of England) is presented as an adult active in the Wars of the Roses in January 1461 that Stevenson provides the footnote: "At the date of this story, Richard Crookback could not have been created Duke of Gloucester; but for clearness, with the reader's leave, he shall so be called."