Beverley was reliant on pilgrimage , but changes brought about by the Reformation impacted upon this tradition , resulting in a decline in its status . Local Beverley man Cardinal John Fisher was martyred along with Thomas More for refusing to accept the Tudor King Henry VIII as Head of the Church of England . In October 1536 , there was a popular rising in Beverley where 500 men in the town gathered at the Westwood under the leadership of a local lawyer named William Stapleton , later becoming part of the larger Pilgrimage of Grace in York and , in turn , part of the 30,000 rebels opposing Henry 's new religious laws . Henry followed through with the break from Rome and the Dissolution of the Monasteries , dissolving the Dominican Friary in Beverley and taking their land for himself , the Knights Templars in Beverley suffered the same fate in 1540
Pilgrimage of Grace
Pilgrimage of Grace
Beverley