Can anyone name some of the more important noble families in Europe?

by vertexoflife

e.g. Plantagenet, Anjou, Windsor.

What other royal or noble families had notable impacts on European history?

I'm asking because I want to pick up histories of royal families in England, France, Germany, Netherlands and I need the names to start my research. For example, the house of Windsor can be traced back to the House of Este in the 1200's.

kmmontandon

If you're literally only looking for names, a quick starting point:

House of Bourbon

The Habsburgs

The House of Hannover

The first two are especially crucial to the 16th thru late 18th century history of Europe as a whole, not even just Western Europe. The third was rather important to British history, giving it the various King Georges.

[deleted]

The Capetian family ruled pretty much everything at some point.

kwgoodlet

Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (House of Wettin), though not too enduring, is important for Belgian history.