The pub is named after the medieval ballad, The King and the Miller of Mansfield, which tells the story of a miller who gives a bed for the night to a stranger travelling to Nottingham. Over dinner, the miller tells the stranger they’re eating one of King Henry II’s deer, poached from Sherwood Forest. The following day, the miller discovers the stranger is the king himself. Rather than being punished for theft, though, the miller is knighted for his hospitality. The tale concludes with the miller journeying from Mansfield to Westminster to receive his knighthood.