5 Historical Figures Who Didn’t Actually Exist

History is littered with famous figures whose words and deeds have echoed through time. But every so often, a fictional character worms their way into the public consciousness and comes to be thought of as real.

While there are some figures whose place in history is still debated—for instance, there’s a chance that the legendary King Arthurmight have been based on a real king—there are a handful of notable people who historians now largely agree definitely didn’t exist.

Here are five such examples of famous historical figures who are actually fictional—from a fearsome Chinese warrior to an American culinary icon. 

1. Mulan
2. Ned Ludd
3. Robin Hood
4. Betty Crocker
5. William Tell

Mulan

Thanks to the 1998 Disney animated movie, the story of Mulan is now known worldwide. It’s often thought that the character was based on a figure from ancient Chinese history called Hua Mulan, who disguised herself as a man so that she could go to war in place of her father. But this formidable female warrior actually comes from Chinese folklore. 

The earliest known version of Mulan’s story—a poem titled the Ballad of Mulan—dates back to the 12th century, but it’s thought to have originated as early as the 4th century. Mulan became a staple figure in Chinese folklore, appearing in many poems, plays, and songs before making her Disney debut. Although there has been plenty of debate about whether the legendary heroine was based on a real person, historians currently think that Mulan and her inspirational gender-defying story has been fictional all along. 

Ned Ludd

These days, anyone who hates technology is branded a Luddite, but the original Luddites—named after their supposed leader, Ned Ludd—weren’t actually opposed to tech. At the start of the 19th century, the Napoleonic Wars led to economic turbulence and textile workers in England started protesting for better pay, hours, and working conditions. When their peaceful protests were broken up, they decided to escalate the dispute by destroying textile machinery.

But this movement wasn’t actually led by Ned Ludd—because he wasn’t even real. The story goes that in 1779, Ludd was working at a stocking frame when he was punished for knitting incorrectly. In response, he smashed the machine to pieces with a hammer. This tale was first told in a December 1811 issue of The Nottingham Review—nine months after the Luddite movement kicked off—but historians haven’t found any evidence to back it up or prove that Ludd ever existed.

In reality, Ned Ludd was simply a symbolic figurehead for the Luddites to rally around. They referred to him as “General” and “Captain” and would send threatening letters signed with his name to conceal their own.

Robin Hood

Robin Hood is one of the most famous figures from English folklore. He’s typically depicted as an archer who wears green tights, steals from the rich to give to the poor, and lives in Sherwood Forest with his band of Merry Men. His story has been adapted to film numerous times—most notably he’s been played by Errol Flynn, Cary Elwes, and Kevin Costner. He’s even been turned into an anthropomorphic fox by Disney.

The story of the heroic outlaw first appeared in print in the 1370s, and since then various researchers have attempted to track down the real Robin Hood. There have been a handful of suggestions for who may have inspired the famous rogue, including Roger Godberd and Robert Hod. But there isn’t enough evidence to support any of the suggested candidates. With no historical record of the real outlaw ever having been found, most historians now think that Robin Hood was always only a myth.

Betty Crocker

Betty Crocker’s name is pretty much synonymous with baking. Not only has her name and face appeared on box mixes for cakes, cookies, and brownies for decades, but she’s also the author of the best-selling cookbook in the world.

But what many people don’t know is that the famous baker is actually an invention of the Washburn-Crosby Company (later General Mills). The Betty Crocker character was created in 1921 for a promotional campaign for Gold Medal Flour. Anyone who completed a jigsaw puzzle and mailed it in would receive a pincushion shaped like a bag of flour. But the company also received hundreds of letters asking cooking questions. The ad department decided that a woman would be better suited to answering the queries than a man, so they created the fictional Betty Crocker to sign the letters.

In the decades that followed, Betty Crocker became a household name. It’s no wonder that people believed she was a real person because General Mills promoted her as such, even hiring women to portray her on the radio and TV. The ruse was kept up until 1945, when Fortune revealed that she was actually fictional. But the news didn’t reach everyone, and there are many who still believe that she was real.

William Tell

The birth of Switzerland is often said to have started with William Tell, a man who lived in the canton of Uri in 1307. The story goes that Tell defied Albrecht Gessler—a tyrannical bailiff of the Austrian House of Habsburg—by refusing to remove his hat as a sign of respect. As punishment, he was forced to shoot an apple off of his own son’s head—which he did so successfully. Some versions have it that Tell then assassinated Gessler, but either way, his act of defiance is said to have inspired the rebellion against the Habsburgs that led to the foundation of the Swiss Confederacy.

But there are a few issues with this story that make historians think that Tell was just a myth. To start with, the earliest known record of Tell’s apple-shooting feat only dates back to the 1470s—more than a century after it was said to have occurred. It’s also often said that Tell signed the Rütli Oath —an alliance between three cantons that was foundational to Switzerland’s creation—but when a long-lost copy of the document resurfaced, his signature was missing. Even worse, the treaty was dated 1291—a whole 16 years before Tell supposedly ignited the rebellion.

But despite almost certainly not being a real historical figure, Tell remains an important folkloric figure in Switzerland. 

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