As a voracious reader of historical fiction, sometimes I wonder which is better: a novel about a famous person or a novel about a random person living in times of great upheaval? My favorite medieval fiction is split about evenly: Elizabeth Chadwick's and Philippa Gregory's novels usually revolve around a historically known main character, whereas the Outlander Novels and the works of Ellis Peters and Norah Lofts often don't.
If you are writing about a known person you are stuck with their often shockingly vivid flaws. Philippa Gregory has been criticized for the negative qualities she attributes to Anne Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl, although I believe her Anne is still sympathetic, and Mary is her real heroine anyway. But I have trouble wrapping my head around the idea of a "made-up person who encounters famous people/events" novel. It does involve working with the imagination on a different level, and sometimes you end up with a silly "Oh my goodness! I, a simple milkmaid, just happened to trip over George Washington!" type of thing.
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