Stephen Fry has a story about meeting dame diana moseley nee mitford. She said to him (a jewish man) "Of course you never met hitler, did you? One thing people forget is how funny he was!".
A despicable woman who got to die peacefully in her 90s.
William Tell is a Swiss folk hero. El Cid was a real person in Spain but has become a legendary character, as has Rob Roy McGregor. There's also Beowulf from earlier times. Welsh mythology is pretty cool I'd check that out for some knightly stuff, like The Gododin.
Up until the seventies it was 00000000