Marriages contracted by the Counts of Harrach in the Early Modern period are good examples of matrimonial strategies, as theorized by Pierre Bourdieu. The nobility around the Habsburg monarchy shows a high degree of complexity. The motivations of the Counts of Harrach were very different: their aim was to become allied to families from various backgrounds, to marry into the families of the great court officers, to seize interesting inheritances, and to come closer to the royal families. There were also constraints: they had to ensure the purity of their nobility, the solidarity between the different branches of their families, and the imperial favor they might lose with a new monarch. The result was a delicate balance that shows how intermingled the legal ranks and statuses of the nobility were at that moment when the aristocratic elite living in the Court of Vienna crystallized.