10 Famous People Who Never Actually Existed

9. Robin Hood And His Merry Men

Robin Hood robbed the rich to give to the poor, didn't he? Well, he certainly did in countless literary and big-screen adaptations, but the likelihood is that Robin Hood and his band of "Merry Men" never actually existed. The heroic outlaw - who, while clad in Lincoln green tights and a silly hat, resided in Sherwood Forest - was renowned as the finest archer of his time and was said to steal from the rich in order to feed the poor.

Interestingly, though, the terms "Rabunhod" and "Robehod" were often given to criminals as early as the 12th Century, and that's where the myth could arise from. Yet Robin Hood and his Merry Men - including Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marian and Will Scarlet - are mythical characters who no historian has ever been able to prove existed, despite the fact they appear in numerous poems and ballads from the 14th and 15th Century.

Most accounts suggest Robin Hood was a peasant who led a gang of defiant bandits against the loathed Sheriff of Nottingham - but he has also been described as a follower of King Richard I (the Lionheart), a member of the Knights Templar, or a nobleman-turned-outlaw who was actually the Earl of Huntingdon.

Unfortunately, Robin Hood probably never existed - it seemed too good to be true that a person could be that selfless, didn't it?