Setting
Bows Against the Barons takes place largely in the English Midlands, primarily in Nottinghamshire. In the last two chapters, it shifts north through the Peak District of Derbyshire into Yorkshire. As a Robin Hood novel, Bows Against the Barons features many places associated with the legend: Sherwood Forest, Nottingham, Kirklees, Hathersage. Barnsdale is mentioned several times as an alternative refuge and destination for Sherwood's outlaws. The novel also alludes briefly to Edwinstowe.
The novel takes place during the period of the Crusades, although it does not specify which one. It mentions that Sir Rolf has campaigned in the Holy Land and visited the "rotting courts of Eastern Europe", an allusion to the Byzantine Empire in its decline. Sir Rolf's tyranny is attributed in part to "new notions of cruelty and luxury" picked up in the latter place. The novel also alludes to the Norman Conquest as a historical background, depicting Nottingham as a town divided between Saxon and Norman boroughs, and comparing the battle between Robin and Wessex to the Battle of Hastings.
In his 1948 foreword and 1966 postscript, Trease compares his novel's events to the English peasants' revolt of 1381, and his version of Robin Hood to medieval rebels such as Wat Tyler, Robert Kett and Jack Cade.
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