Just to clear up a final point ... Having gone back through my reference books and my research notes, I can offer an explanation for the 'confusion', for want of a better word, about the relationship between the Angevin kings (starting with Henry II) and the Norman rule (of both England and Ireland).
Whilst the throne of England passed, in the direct male line, from the Normans to the Angevin descendants of the Frankish Counts of Anjou, the nobility in England and later (from the late 1100's on) Ireland were, and remained for many centuries, principally of Norman descent and origin. And indeed, Henry II was half Norman from his mother. Hence, whilst it may be said that the Norman *kings* ended with (arguably) either Stephen or Henry I, the Normans effectively ruled on well into the Plantagenet period. Bru
