How did England become free of Normandy after 1066?

Answer 1

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.