Great Tales from English History

The great English king Richard, immortalized in a statue at Parliament, spoke French, not English. "Robin Hood" was originally a lowly bail dodger, who's name gradually came to mean any one who disappeared after committing a crime.
These and other tidbits are present in Robert Lacey's Great Tales from English History.
The book primarily covers the middle ages in England (with a bit of available "early" history. However, it is not a history book per se, but more of a story book. It has a rough chronology of interesting stories of English characters. Some of the stories concern events and characters that shaped history at the time. Others are stories that were less significant (or even never happened), but later become part of the social fabric through myth and exaggeration.
History is, after all, is made to be applicable for the time it is written. Minor events from hundreds of years prior, suddenly become historically important because they fit a modern need or sensibility. Thus, looking at the "mythological" history from a given time period can probably tell you as much (if not more) about the time than the actual "facts" can tell. This book does a fairly good job of presenting interesting stories from the perspective of "our time" as well as other times in the not so distant pass. Now I want to dig up even more Medieval history.