The perpetuation of the myth of 'Bloody' Mary. In a time when execution was rife, she was far less 'bloody' than both her father and her sister. For example Elizabeth was Queen Mary's greatest rival and most significant threat to her throne and to her religion; yet she let her live, when so easily she could have gone to the scaffold. When Elizabeth came to the throne, Mary (Queen of Scots) was her greatest rival and most significant threat to her throne and her religion; Elizabeth had her executed.
Of course, Henry topped them both, executing ten of thousands in his purges against common folk whose main crime was to question the King's decision to allow his country to be torn asunder because of a petty dispute with the Pope. Yet only Mary became infamous as the murderous monarch.
Um... no.
Mary had no legitimate reason to execute Elizabeth -- she hated Anne Boleyn and doubted Elizabeth's adherence to Catholic doctrine, and she was undoubtedly exhorted to kill her by all the Catholic bigots around her, but she had no evidence of scheming or plotting by Elizabeth against her own position -- Elizabeth made no effort to usurp the throne, obeyed all religious strictures and simply bided her time, as Mary herself had done during the reign of her half-brother. And without a child of her own to succeed her, Elizabeth's execution would have risked the throne of England falling into the clutches of the French, the enemies of her husband, Philip of Spain, since Mary Queen of Scots was betrothed to the Dauphin and was living in France before marrying him in 1558.
As for Mary Queen of Scots, she was actively involved in plotting against the throne, seeking to usurp Elizabeth -- she may ultimately have been driven to it by desperation and
agents provocateurs, but it was genuine involvement and warranted her death. Nonetheless, Elizabeth was chary of having her executed, delayed and delayed, and even to the end didn't want to do it and fulminated against her officials when it was done. Quite unlike Bloody Mary who had Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley immediately executed after Wyatt's rebellion, though Jane herself -- no more than 17 years old -- was in no way responsible for it or her father's actions. That was a needless execution, far beyond anything Elizabeth did.
And the "Bloody Mary" epithet came about because of her execution of the Protestant Martyrs, few of whom were any threat at all to her -- over 300 of them were killed during her reign, an average of over 90 a year. During Elizabeth's reign the Catholic threat against her and her throne was real, and though some 200 Catholics were executed for treason, even if we accept them as martyrs for their faith, that's still only an average of some 8 a year, so hardly comparable.
Yes, Henry's actions such as around the Pilgrimage of Grace caused the death of many, but this was revolt/rebellion and was always going to put down in a brutal fashion. And frankly, describing the schism as a "petty dispute with the Pope" suggests a lack of understanding of all the issues involved.
