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230 General History of Europe CHOIR OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL This was destroyed by fire four years after Thomas Becket was murdered there. It was soon rebuilt under Henry II. The lower rows of arches are the old round kind, while the upper row shows how the pointed arch was coming in. (See 429) but they evidently came in considerable numbers, and their influence upon the English habits and govern- ment was very great. A century after William's con- quest the whole body of the nobility, the bishops, the abbots, and the government officials had become practi- cally all Norman. Besides these, the architects who built the castles and fort- resses, the cathedrals and abbeys, came from Nor- mandy. Merchants from the Norman cities of Rouen and Caen settled in London and other English cities, and weavers from Flanders set- tled in various towns and even in the country. For a time these newcom- ers remained a separate people, but by the year 1200 they had become for the most part indistinguish- able from the great mass of English people among whom they had come. They had nevertheless introduced among the in- habitants of England a new and important element which made the nation more energetic, active-minded, and varied in its occupations and interests than it had been before the Conquest.