Tilting at windmills Cervantes wrote and published "Don Quixote" during the Eighty Years' War, or Dutch War of Independence (1568–1648), a revolt by the Habsburg Netherlands to end Spanish rule. In "Don Quixote", the eponymous protagonist consistently misinterprets the motives and actions of his adversaries and allies, and struggles to even understand his own at times — a conundrum regularly resulting in apparently unjustified violent actions and consequences. One way of interpreting Don Quixote's tilting at windmills could be allegorically, thereby promoting critical, skeptical, or satirical evaluation of either a hero's motives, rationales and actions, or the ultimate aims of a nation's foreign
Marcus Corvinus (fictional character) and has crossed paths with the Imperial family on several occasions. He was instrumental in the fall of Sejanus, acting on posthumous instructions from a member of the Imperial family. Although he is happiest in Rome, Corvinus travels frequently. He has been up and down Italy, and has spent years in Athens, particularly in the days surrounding the death of Sejanus. He and Rufia are childless, a source of sorrow to them, but have adopted a daughter, the child of a man who was executed for crimes uncovered by Corvinus. Marcus Corvinus (fictional character) Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus is a