My teachers (English lit and drama classes, several years of each) specifically told us that Shakespeare's history was not to be taken as literal truth, that it came from a varied mix of influences (not to mention a highly fertile imagination), and they actively encouraged us to question and explore, to study the factual sources, and to draw our own interpretations & conclusions.

That's what good literature/theatre do, activate something in the reader or viewer that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. And I still believe that an artist - any artist - cannot be dismissed simply because they don't fit a particular ideological viewpoint, especially one formed centuries later.

In any case, he was not taught to me in brainwash-fashion.