England in the Middle Ages 4 1 1 people. We cannot tell how many Normans actually emigrated General re- across the Channel, but they evidently came in considerable Norman Con- numbers, and their influence upon the English habits and gov- °^^^^ ernment v^as very great. A century after William's conquest the whole body of the nobility, the bishops, abbots, and govern- ment officials, had become practically all Norman. Besides these, the architects who built the castles and fortresses, the cathe- drals and abbeys, came from Normandy. Merchants from the Norman cities of Rouen and Caen settled in London and other English cities, and weavers from Flanders in various towns and even in the country. For a short time these newcomers remained a separate people, but by the year 1200 they had become for the most part indistinguishable from the great mass of English people amongst whom they had come. They had nevertheless made the people of England more energetic, active- minded, and varied in their occupations and interests than they had been before the conquest. Section 69. Henry II and the Plantagenets William the Conqueror was followed by his sons, William William Rufus and Henry I. Upon the death of the latter the country uoo^^and '^~ went throuo^h a terrible period of civil war, for some of the Henry i, o ^ ' 1100-1135 nobility supported the Conqueror's grandson Stephen, and some his granddaughter Matilda. After the death of Stephen, when Civil war end- Henry II, Matilda's son,^ was finally recognized in 1 154 by all cession of as king, he found the kingdom in a melancholy state. The jj^j^^l^j^' nobles had taken advantage of the prevalent disorder to erect castles without royal permission and to establish themselves as independent rulers, and many disorderly hired soldiers had been brought over from the Continent to support the rivals for the throne. Henry II at once adopted vigorous measures. He destroyed the illegally erected fortresses, sent off the foreign soldiers, and 1 See genealogical table below, p. 416.
