England didn't free itself from the Normans but there was a
dynastic shift in 1154 when Henry II came to the throne. Henry was
half Norman, half Angevin, being the son of Matilda, daughter of
Henry I, son of William the Conqueror of Normandy, of England and
Geoffrey of Anjou. His successors were referred to as Angevins but
were direct descendants of the Normans. The subsequent kings of
England were heirs to both duchies of Anjou and Normandy but
because Anjou passed through the male line, not the female as
Normandy was, they were referred to ad Angevin kings, i.e. of
Anjou. After 1216 and the death of King John, the last of the
Angevin kings, who also lost much of the continental lands to the
French king in 1204, kings became far more England-focused and were
referred to as English rather than Norman or Angevin.
