It was left overgrown for more than a century before new timber buildings were built over the roman village, but most dwellings were outside the Roman walls. It was in the reign of King Ethelbert and his French wife Bertha, that Canterbury was converted to Christianity. In 597 A.D. Pope Gregory sent St. Augustine to England to convert people to Christianity. He was welcomed by Bertha who was already Christian. He was given full use of her little parish church of St. Martin's to preach in. After succeeding in many conversions, including the King, the Abbeys of the Saints Peter and Paul were built just outside the city walls. They later became St. Augustine´s Abbey where Archbishops of the church were buried with Kentish Royalty. Ethelbert's son began the Christ Church monastery in 602 A.D., which became the present day Cathedral, and so began Canterbury's importance as the mother of British Christianity, a position which it has held for 1400 years. Viking raids pushed the community of Canterbury back inside the comforting walls of the city. During the Viking raids of 991-1016 A.D. the city was pillaged and the Cathedral destroyed. Canterbury had to pay large sums of money to ward off the attackers and the Archbishop was murdered. The first Danish King showed his submission by ammending his life and repairing the Cathedral. In 1066, after the Battle of Hastings, Canterbury surrendered with no struggle to William the Conquerer. After a fire in 1067, which destroyed the Cathedral, the new Norman archbishop, Lanfranc reconstructed and enlarged it. The work was carried out by the two succeeding Archbishops and was consecrated with many royal, state and religious dignitaries present. The church's composition was changed to have Benedictan monks in key religious positions. St. Augustine's Abbey was also given a Norman abbot and he set about demolishing the Anglo-Saxon parts of the Abbey and replacing them with new shrines to house the bodies of past archbishops. In 1123, the Archbishop Corbeil set up the Augustine Church, of which Thomas Becket was Archdeacon until after he became Archbishop. To ensure that Canterbury was kept as a stronghold, it was fortified with new walls, gates and towers, and a massive stone keep was built, similar to the those at Dover and Rochester. For the next 40 years no great upheavals were made within the church. When Henry II became King, he looked for an ally within the church. He thought this was possible when the archbishop died and the King's companion and Chancellor, Thomas Becket was made the new archbishop.