the King, and later the Pope. The then Archbishop of Canterbury, William de Corbeil, wanted to bring an end to this and extend his influence to Dover. Therefore, in 1130, using the canons' behaviour as a pretext, he persuaded Henry I to give him a charter allowing him to transfer their assets to a new Priory of St Martin in Dover, whilst leaving their Market Square church to be used as the principal parish church of the town for the use of the townsfolk. The parish church remained dedicated to St Martin - the new priory was called "St. Martin's of the New Work", or "Newark", to distinguish it from the parish church - and under the new Priory's control (its few remains can now be seen on the western side of Market Square, near Dover Museum.) A site having been secured (probably from land that belonged to the former canons of St. Martin's le Grand), building began there in 1131, and within five years it was partially occupied by 12 canons regular as a Priory dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Martin. Archbishop Theobald completed the buildings in about 1140 and in 1143 confirmed the transfer of the assets of St Martin le Grand and established that thereafter the new priory would follow the Benedictine Rule and remain in possession of the Cathedral church at Canterbury as a mere "cell", at the disposition of the Archbishop. Much controversy thus ensued over the following two centuries between the monks of the cathedral and the canons of Dover Priory. 1150-1500 King Stephen was said to have died on a journey whilst staying at the Priory in 1154. Repaired and extended in 1231 after much damage in a fire of 1201, it was pillaged by the French in a raid in August 1295, during which a monk called Thomas de la Hale was murdered. Extensive repairs were made in the 1480s. The abbey's church seems to have been a very large one - the King's Commissioner sent to assess it by Thomas Cromwell (just prior to its dissolution) described it to him in a letter as "the fairest church in all that quarter of Kent." It was probably three times as long as St. Mary's Church in Dover, with a general plan perhaps comparable to Repton Priory, or to the Cistercian Stanley Abbey in Wiltshire. Its tower would have stood