The Keeper of the town from 1316-1331 was Robert de Hastang, but owing to ill health in the latter years, Richard de la Pole was given custody of the town in 1326. Richard's brother William de la Pole became the town's first mayor in 1331, holding the office until 1336. The de la Poles. later Earls of Suffolk were a famous Hull family, but only one more of them was to be mayor of Hull - Sir Michael de la Pole in 1376. He became the first Earl of Suffolk and Lord Chancellor of England. The family built a great manor house in Hull, which stood where the head Post Office does today in Lowgate.
Hull Trinity House was founded in 1369 for charitable work among seamen and their families, but it later became extremely powerful in maritime affairs, so that at one time non-members were prohibited from taking charge of a vessel between Flamborough Head in the north and Winterton-ness in the south.

  In 1447 King Henry VI granted a charter which gave the corporation the right to elect an Admiral of the Humber. Nowadays this is only a nominal office, but it is still vested in the Lord Mayor. During the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, which was a rebellion against the anti-Rome policies of Henry VIII, the loyal gentry from the East Riding fled to Hull. where the Corporation, after some prevarication decided to hold the town for the King. The rebels laid siege to Hull on 15th October. On 19th October the town capitulated and the rebels were allowed to enter the town freely. After a visit by the leader of the Pilgrimage of Grace, Robert Aske, the main force of the rebels left the town, leaving behind them 200 men as a garrison commanded by Sir Robert Constable. and they held the town until December, when the rebellion was dispersed. In July 1537 Constable was hanged in chains from Beverley Gate "as a discouragement to others". In 1986 Beverley Gate, scene of this gruesome act, was excavated by archeologist's. It is situated at the west end of Whitefriargate.

  Henry VIII paid two visits to Hull in 1541, when he was greeted enthusiastically; no doubt most people had memories of Constable's fate to spur their enthusiasm! As a result of what he had seen of the town defences he decided to have constructed a castle and blockhouses on the east side of the River Hull. In 1546 the commander of the garrison instituted by Henry, Sir Michael Stanhope, was made Governor of the town. Henry's strengthening of the defences was to have an important bearing on events a century later. In 1536 the town was implicated in a rebellion against the King on behalf of the 'old religion' and way of life, in 1642 it was in the forefront of the rebellion against another King, but this time on behalf of the new religion way of life.