Gill De Rais springs to mind, although with Bathory (and indeed De Rais laterally) it was the MANNER of the deaths not the numbers. In battle or in the name of "law" was fine...to get your jollies, less so apparently!
Mary Queen of Scots is called Bloody Mary for having 300 prodestants killed, She accused them of conspiring against her, but Elizabeth1 had far more blood on her hands in the name of national security but we don't call her Bloody Lizzy do we. Her father Henry 8th had thousands of English Catholics killed. Today history remembers him as an sob for but not for that reason. It was his brutal treatment of his wives that caused him to go down as a villain.
History is never simple and European history can be extra tough because its sometimes hard to distinguish fact from folklore.
Mary Tudor and Mary Queen of Scots are completely different people for starters and Henry VIII WAS a Catholic, Mary 1st ("Bloody" Mary" )burned PROTESTANTS) and ...well you get the idea of how wrong you are
Seriously, just give up on history - it isn't your forte
Sorry got the Marys mixed up. It happens. BTW Henry was catholic at one time but had a major falling out with the church and ceded from the church. You did know that right?
He was ALWAYS a Catholic - he never abandoned that aspect of his faith. He just replaced the Pope as the head of the Church in England
Those who say he was against Catholicism do not know their history - he was against the Pope, and that was only because he culd not get a divorce granted. In fact Henry was granted the title "Defendor Fidelis" by the Pope prior to the separation
It is not just the Mary's you mixed up - it was pretty much everything you wrote
The story of Sawny Bane was once accepted as true, now its been established as more folklore than reality. Just an example of historical rumore incorrectly accepted as fact.
It addresses the issue of historical rumor which is the point of this thread. BTW you are wrong about Henry. He was not always a Catholic. In fact i doubt he was ever practicing.
Oh want a historical rumor? Ok. Its assumed that Stoker based his book dracula using vlad the impaler as a example. But a professor who taught english at my university and specialized in vampire stuff, questions that assuption and says that Stoker in fact knew little about Vlad the Impaler. Her name is Elizabeth Miller.