After the English Reformation , the North saw several Catholic uprisings , including the Lincolnshire Rising , Bigod 's Rebellion in Cumberland and Westmorland , and largest of all , the Yorkshire-based Pilgrimage of Grace , all against Henry VIII . His daughter Elizabeth I faced another Catholic rebellion , the Rising of the North . The region would become the centre of recusancy as prominent Catholic families in Cumbria , Lancashire and Yorkshire refused to convert to Protestantism . Royal power over the region was exercised through the Council of the North at King 's Manor , York , which was founded in 1484 by Richard III . The Council existed intermittently for the next two centuries – its final incarnation was created in the aftermath of the Pilgrimage of Grace and was chiefly an institution for providing order and dispensing justice
Pilgrimage of Grace
Pilgrimage of Grace
Northern England