He blew with His winds, and they were scattered

Medina Sidonia's fleet had been supposed to meet in the Spanish Netherlands with the ground troops commanded by the Duke of Parma, an army of over 30,000 men ready to land in England under the Armada's protection.

However, unfavourable weather conditions, poor communications, and the unexpectedly strong resistance of the English fleet under Admiral Howard forced Medina Sidonia to return to Spain by rounding the northern coasts of Scotland and Ireland.

The Spaniards' unfamiliarity with those waters, together with unusually powerful storms in the region, caused many of the ships to run aground in the western coast of Ireland, decimating the Armada.

The use in this context of the phrase Flavit et Dissipati Sunt, taken from the Biblical text of Job 4:9, seems to have originated in the inscription of a Dutch commemorative medal that was struck to mark the occasion.

Relations between Catholic Spain and Protestant England had been souring for a considerable period of time, eventually leading the outbreak of the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War in 1585.

The unlikely victory was viewed by the English as being proof of God's support for the Protestant cause, church services in thanks were held across the country and a number of medals were produced in England and the Dutch Republic to commemorate the event.

Tigris periit, eo quod non haberet prædam, et catuli leonis dissipati sunt; the Elizabethan Bishops' Bible translation of which runs: With the blast of God they perishe, with the breath of his nostrels are they consumed away.

Another large silver medal displayed a scene of some sinking ships on one side; on the other it satirized the Pope, King Phillip, and other clerics and rulers, who were shown with bandages over their eyes, and with their feet resting on a bed of sharp spikes.

Yet another, used by England as a Naval Reward medal, depicts a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, surrounded by her titles, and featuring on the reverse, an island on the sea with a large bay tree (supposedly immune to lightning) towering over a town, bearing the Latin inscription: Non Ipsa Pericula Tangunt, lit.