Historical fiction is not history. You're blending real events and actual historical personages with characters of your own creation.
George R. R. MartinI was just a kid selling monster stories to the kids in the projects, complete with a dramatic reading, making the werewolf sounds. My career was aborted early on because one of my main customers started to have nightmares and his mother came to my mother and my mother shut down my whole business.
George R. R. Martin