Historically Accurate Fiction?

Look!  Can you believe it, another post!  I'm working ahead on some post because I currently have some down time in my life, actually I'm ahead on everything.  I just needed some documentation on that, because it'll be a long time before it happens again.  Now, that I'm done with this intro, onto the meat of this post!

Fiction (noun)- the class of literature comprising works of imaginative narration, especially in prose form (dictionary.com).
History (noun)- the branch of knowledge dealing with past events (dictionary.com).
Historical fiction (noun)- the genre of literature, film, etc., comprising narratives that take place in the past and are characterized chiefly by an imaginative reconstruction of historical events and personages (dictionary.com).

Hm, looking at those it's hard to see how they could ever fit together.  I mean one is made up things and the other is pure fact.  Opposites.  However, some how our mind can fit those two together and create an oxymoron is just beautiful, or at least in my opinion.  The question is how accurate does the story have to be?

Here are a few links that I think are a good summary:
Hilary Mantel and the Limits of Historical Accuracy
Historical Fiction o Fictionalized History?

Now, to my opinion on this (yeah, I know, you're celebrating;)).  I think that historical fiction is a sketchy area to tread.  Personally I like staying away from well known people that are large historical figures.  By that I mean the Tudors, any president of the USA, Martin Luther (the one in the 1500s, not the 1960s), and others.  I don't just don't like reading things about them that aren't true, I find that like writing about current people such as Kim Jong Il, Barack Obama, One Direction, Pope Benedict XVI-fictionally.  I know that many of the gossip magazines write fictional stories about those kind of people (sorry, but that's my opinion), but as authors I think that you should owe it to your readers to check your facts a little more.

Just a nice picture of the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii)
at my zoo/school, don't know how they tie
into historical fiction...

I say to add facts to your story and make sure that it's historically accurate, but don't make it a non-fiction text book.  It is a story, meaning fiction.  Try not to bore your readers to tears.  Here's a little story of mine about books that are more non-fiction than fiction.  It was back in middle school, 8th grade to be exact, I had to read a fictional book about the Civil War and write a review on it to add to my poster about the Civil War.  I will tell you, I have only gone on SparkNotes once in my life and only once have I ever not read a book for a report-it was that book.  The first 20 pages were filled with facts upon facts upon facts, with little movement, just facts and descriptions about Gettysburg!  I couldn't read it.  Please, oh, please, do not overfill your novel with information.  Tie it into the text, say that you know that during the 1930s that people in the United States would sit down in the evening to listen to President Franklin D. Roosevelt for his fireside chats.  Don't just go:  My dad sat down in his leather chair and listened to the fireside chats that FDR gave.  Try ingratiating into the story, make it not stand out in the text, blend: I passed by the den, tip-toeing around the door trying not to alarm my dad.  From inside the room the soft, comforting voice of FDR projected through the room, my dad slumped in his old leather chair pressed his ear near the radio trying to hear the fireside chat better without interrupting the rest of the house.  Do you see the difference between the two passages?  Things are more in a story form in the second piece, but there are still elements of the fact in there.

Just one more little thing:  research matters when it comes to historical fiction, if you write it then you have to research it!  Just wanted to throw that out there!

What are your opinions on historical fiction?  What do you like, more info or more fiction?  What do you think about the fictional stories about important/famous historical figures?