William Shakespeare’s history plays occupy a distinctive position between historical record and dramatic imagination. Rather than reproducing the past as a transparent sequence of documented facts, Shakespeare reshapes historical material through characterization, dialogue, theatrical conflict, symbolism, compression, omission, and imaginative reconstruction. This article examines how Shakespeare transforms historical events and historical figures into dramatic narratives that explore power, legitimacy, ambition, loyalty, rebellion, political responsibility, and the human consequences of public decisions. Particular attention is given to Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, and Richard III, while reference is also made to the broader structure of Shakespeare’s English history plays. The study argues that Shakespeare’s historical drama should be understood neither as conventional historiography nor as simple fictionalization. His plays construct a dramatic version of the past in which political history becomes a field for examining personality, moral uncertainty, social order, and theatrical performance. Historical characters are consequently presented not merely as names from chronicles but as complex dramatic subjects whose identities are produced through language, action, memory, reputation, and the gaze of others. By comparing Shakespeare’s dramatic treatment with the historical tradition available to him, the article demonstrates that his artistic transformation of history creates a form of historical imagination that remains significant for literary studies, performance studies, and the study of cultural memory.