Elizabeth I, Protestants Supported in the United Provinces, 1587The signing of the Treaty of Nonsuch in 1585 confirmed Elizabeth’s support of the protestant rebels in the Low Countries. This medal was struck two years later as an emphatic visual affirmation of this stance. The artist has depicted the Queen trampling a seven-headed monster that represents the Papacy, the kingdom of Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Duke of Guise and the catholic princes who supported their cause. This is a clear indication that the Queen is no longer a reluctant participant in the protestant struggle abroad, she and Robert Dudley, now the Governor-General of the United Provinces, are the figureheads of a battle to stamp out the catholic suppression of protestantism. The English and Dutch are not alone in their cause on this medal, the reverse shows the Pope, bishops and other ecclesiastics being expelled from the heavens by God with a legend reading ‘whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth’. A year later the destruction of the Spanish Armada off the coasts of the British Isles was seen as confirmation by protestants that God was behind their cause.