There are small parts of history which would make wonderful backgrounds for a novel. Robin Hood has been used thousands of times as an inspiration for a golden hearted bandit rebelling against injustice, but do you know his festive celebrations were also a pretense to reinforce local autonomy against centralized royal power? Here is an academic 50-pages article on the subject:

http://www.academia.edu/3528307/_Robyn_hoode_and_hys_meyne_Robin_Hood_as_a_Festal_Figurehead_for_Local_Autonomy