THE ANATOMY OF THE FRENCH And SPANISH FACTION.  
With a full Discovery of who they are; and what they have done, from before the beginning of King james his Reign unto this present.  
Declaring in particulars, how the many miseries and the calamities which we have, and do endure by Blood, Rapine, and many insupportable Impositions, have proceeded directly from them, seconded by the ambitious Spirits of the Bishops.  
Wherein also all our grievances, and their subtle and horrible Plots are instanced; to give a more full and ample satisfaction unto all.  
Published according to the Order of Parliament.  
LONDON. Printed by Bernard Alsop. 1644.   

THE ANATOMY OF THE FRENCH and SPANISH Faction.  
BEfore the Norman Conquest, the French looked long upon the affairs of England with a greedy eye, and in those innocent times maintained a party here in England to make good their Faction. The Spaniards, as they are more grave in their deportment, so they are more retired in their Counsels; and being then always in Wars, either to establish or increase their more Western territories, had hardly the leisure to think on England, until the Alliance of King Philip with Queen Mary; since which time, being taken either with the wealth or the pleasure of this Isle, they have always either openly by war, or privately by policy, been industrious either to assault it or betray it.  
I will not wipe off the dust of antiquity from the story of the French, to represent unto you, what were the designs which many years since they nourished to unite this Kingdom unto France, neither will I ravel out your expectation or the time in any discourse upon the Spaniard more than what shall concern our present purpose, which is to declare unto you, how the French and Spanish for these late years have desperately conjoined into one resolve of mischief for the subverting of the Protestant Religion, and the ruin of this Kingdom, which was of late the envy, and is now become the pity and the astonishment of Christendom.  
Yet before I arrive unto their latter practices, on which I chief would insist, it will be worth your observation to consider how eagerly both nations did ambiate the marriage of the renowned Queen Elizabeth, who always overcame her enemies and her Sex. The first who did court her in the way of marriage, was Don john de Austria thinking thereby to reduce our Island and Religion to the Spanish Principles, but the Queen who knew very well before, what was the ambition and the arts of Spain could no ways be induced to hear of that illegitimate Prince; The second was the Duke of Alenson brother to Henry the third, than King of France, (a gallant Gentleman indeed) and who, wheresoever he came did win upon the hearts of all by his valour and his courtesy, but as the Kingdom was then blessed in a brave Queen, so was the Queen blessed with as brave a Counsel, and that marriage by reason of the diversity in religion, and many considerations of State being also rejected, the Duke returned into Flanders where either by grief or poison, he died strangely in the flower of his Age, of an issue of blood, which abundantly came from him, out of all the passages of his body.  
In the same manner also died his Elder Brother Charles the eight King of France, neither did his other brother Henry the third, (who before he was King of France swayed the Imperial Sceptre of Polonia) descend unto his grave by a natural or timely death, so true is that of the Satirist.  
Ad generum Cereris sine caede & sanguine pauci  
Descendunt Reges et sicca morte tyranni.  
By a dry death, without some bloody end  
Few Kings to Ceres' son in law descend.  
Herein you may observe how just are all the works, and how constant are the ways of God, their Father Henry the second of France promised his Father on his deathbed, that he would make no more war with the Protestants, nor be the occasion of any more effusion of blood in France for Religion, but soon after his death, forgetting his Covenant with the dead, and overcome with the evil counsel of his Queen, the war began anew, and the old wounds being opened, the land again did sweat with blood. But mark the event, this Henry being afterwards at a Tournament, in which himself would be a tilter, he was struck through the eye with the splinter of a spear, of which not long afterwards he died.  
His sons Charles and Francis miserably ended their contracted days by a terrible evacuation of blood, the wit of justice punishing that blood in their bodies which they had caused to issue out of the body of the Kingdom. Henry the third a great contriver of that most horrid massacre, and Author of much Protestant bloodshed at the battles of Dreux and Moncontour, was killed afterwards himself by a Friar, and both the Murder and the Murderer commended by Xistus then Pope of Rome, neither of such fair hopes of posterity was there any one left, of the great and glorious name of Valois to succeed in the Kingdom of France. I have obviously inserted this, that the world might take notice how dear unto God is the safety of his people, and that he hath pacified the crying blood of the Protestants with the destruction of the families of the Monarches of the earth. If you would give me the reading of it, I could furnish your observation with another story, which because it is very memorable I will here insert it, and then return from whence a little I have digressed.  
Henry the third being slain, the Crown of France was devolved unto Henry of Bourbon King of Navarre, who had married Margaret sister to Henry the third, she was a Lady of a delicate constitution both of mind and body, and admirable for her virtues and her vices, who finding that the Peers of France had estranged their hearts and their loyalties from her husband by reason of his religion, she persuaded him for the assurance of his Crown, and the safety of his person, to turn Catholic again; which indeed once before he did, which was at the massacre of Saint bartholomew's, some 3 or 4 days after the solemnisation of his marriage. But though that superstition be blind, what cannot the jesuits see? They conceiving that this alteration of his Religion was but dissolation in the King, they corrupted a villain with gold and the certainty of salvation, (as if the way to heaven was by murder) to destroy him; this desperate caitiff (under the pretence of private business of great importance) having passed the guards had access unto his Majesty, and finding him on the top of the stairs stooping, and prepared to listen to him, he struck at his breast with his knife, and missing it by a more merciful error, he struck his knife through his lip against his teeth. The villain apprehended and the tumult appeased, a great Personage standing near unto his Majesty, said unto him, Sir, You have denied God in your mouth, and now you feel he hath struck you in the mouth, I must beseech your Majesty to consider of it, and not deny him in your heart, lest he should strike you through the heart. Many years after this were passed away, and the King oftentimes in his mirth amongst other doubts would desire to be satisfied in his knowledge of what Religion he himself was, and surely at the conference betwixt the Cardinal Du Peron, and Monsieur Du Plessis, it seems that he was more addicted to the Cardinal's part; howsoever not long after (it is too well known,) that passing through the street in his Caroche, he was struck quite through the heart with Ravilliacs knife. The hearts of Princes are in the merciful hands of God, who by vile Agents can deprive them of their temporal Crowns, to crown them with glory and happiness for evermore; howsoever this is a true and a sad relation, and of great use and consequence in all ages, if it precisely be considered.  
I will not trouble you with a further repetition, how often in Queen Elizabeth's days the Spanish faction by War, by jesuites, and by some great though disaffected personages at Court did advance itself, and how often it was suppressed. What title the Spaniard pretended to the Crown, even in the evening of her reign is sufficiently known and answered. I will pass therefore to the beginning of King james his days, who although he was a most wise and knowing Prince, the Spanish faction found then a greater power to act their designs, and Historians a lesser liberty to express them: Almost at his very entrance into this Kingdom, an impudent and wild Petition was contrived by Father Garnet and other Priests and jesuites, for a toleration of Religion and preferred to his Majesty, but advisedly rejected, upon Arch Bishop Abbot's grave counsel to the King; upon this denial their Faction growing desperate, they enterprised (by the advice of the said Father Garnet) the Gunpowder treason, for which how fare they dived into Hell for counsel, the Devils themselves can witness. Not long before in eighty eight, they practised on the water to overthrow us, and now (as if they would make all the Elements accessary to our destruction) they contrived in the Earth by fire, to blow us up into the Air. And indeed it is no wonder they should so much practise with fire, and be so guilty of it, who are themselves the fire brands of Hell. One would have thought that such a desperate and so matchless a design, upon King, Peers, Kingdom and people, should have produced the execution of some Law, for the utter extirpation of all Papists, and their jesuitical adherents; but unfortunately such was then the interest with foreign Princes and the King of Spain, the entertainment of whose Pensioners, being some of our Nobility and Church Papists, came to no less than three thousand or four thousand pound a year, that after execution done upon a few, the further prosecution of the Law did cease; Nay so prevalent was this Spanish Faction with King james, that by many impertinent solicitations, they induced him to condescend to many things, which have proved since very prejudicial to him, his Royal progeny, the Peace of his Kingdom, and the Protestant Religion then established. For in the first place, his Majesty was drawn to conclude a Peace with Spain, the most disadvantageous to this Kingdom that ever was; for by it no English were permitted to trade into the West Indies, and if any did adventure so to do, he was to be hanged and tortured without mercy; from hence it came to pass, that the English who had resolved with the Netherlands for the sending of ten thousand men between them into those parts, were so deterred as that our friends the Netherlanders were left to shift for themselves; who now have gotten so great a footing in Brasile (which is not the tenth part of America, yet bigger in situation then three times England) that the Spaniard will never be able to remove them thence. And while the English for many years sare still, the King of Spain hath been so well enabled by the vast treasures that came from thence, to make full and due payment to his jesuitical Factors here, as that they ever since have performed most faithful service to him. And lest any thing should be wanting to the Catholic King undertaking the Catholic Cause, they persuaded King james to arm the King of Spain with two thousand Pieces of Ordnance, under colour of which licence, Sir john jeme transported twice as many, what others did is not well known, but it is conceived by able judgements, that if the King of Spain were as well prepared with men and shipping, as he is with Guns and Ammunition, he might beat us with our own weapons. And thus from one degree to another, they have still encroached on His Majesty. After this, with might and main they laboured for; and cried up his boundless prerogative, a thing which Princes are generally over much delighted to hear, and by this his Majesty was drawn at last to disaffect Parliaments, as entrenching too much upon His Royal Prerogative, and regulating the Regal power, which never ought to exceed Law, but when it rendeth to the relief of the subject in mitigating the rigour of it, and not by impoverishing the Subjects, and oppressing them with illegal Monopolies and unwarrantable taxations, which by woeful experience this miserable Kingdom hath too long felt and groaned under the burden of them.  
Many more particulars may be alleged, as the prevailing power they had with King james, when (upon the motion of Gondamore) his Majesty neglected the proffer of some Germane Princes, and condescended to send his son and heir into Spain, for the contract of a marriage with the King of Spain's sister, and one of a contrary Religion, which had it accordingly proceeded, it might have proved as prejudicial and troublesome, as the marriage with France.  
But the proceed of the Spanish Faction since the access of His Majesty that now is unto the Crown, I need not recite at large, they are all within your own memory, yet for your better satisfaction, I cannot but report some few particulars. The first is, of the laying of their foundation at the Conclave at Rome, where it was concluded, that his Holiness should have a Nuntio in England, and the Queen of England should have an Agent at Rome, to act things here as should be there resolved on. Another was to persuade his Majesty by mediation of the Queen (whom they too well knew and saw that he entirely loved) to prefer those to dignities and Courts of judicature, who might serve best to put in execution their mischievous designs, whereby it most unhappily came to pass that the Spanish Faction became the Cabinet Councillors, so over-awing and overswaying the greater and better part of the privy Council, that their mere proposals passed for resolutions, and hence it was that the Starchamber (where these and they whom these promoted and countenanced did bear the greatest sway) did abound with extravagant Censures, no less unconscionable than terrible, by oppressing the common people and maintaining illegal taxations, and inducing Prerogatives far beyond the precedents of all former times, and surely had it not been for those exceeding powerful Popish factors, the high Commission had not decreed so eagerly to oppose true Religion, by Suspension, deprivation, Excommunication, Fines and imprisonment, much less some Bishops and inferior Ecclesiastical Courts, had not adventured with such animosity to propose, or with such violence to prosecute their own superstitious articles, as if they had been Canons concluded on by the whole Church of England, or as if the Articles of these men which consisted only of Bishops, Deans, Archdeacon's, &c. (as every Bishop or sly Official thought good) ought to bind the the whole Church being so partially, if not corruptly represented. For are Cathedral Churches any other but such places which Queen Elizabeth and her Council for some political ends, were pleased to let rest in some part of that popish splendour and magnificence which might take with the neighbouring Princes of the contrary Religion, and not render her and her people utterly reconcileable to the Church of Rome. The Parochial Churches than were better cleansed from Popish Relics, according to the well settled constitution of other reformed Churches, and now forsooth better refined Parochial Churches must again be reduced to a Cathedral garb, because it is more ceremonious and majestical, and therein more resembleth Rome.  
Thus with the overswelling greatness of those cabinet Counsellors, men were preferred to places of judicature in the Common wealth, which (I suppose) either could not or would not maintain justice, but were always forced to advance prerogative above and against Law, the subjects by many woeful complaints can witness how many millions of moneys in few years have been wrested from them under the name of Lone, Knighthood, Shipmoney, etc. all which though unlawful, yet were they either justified by the most part of the judges, and the people miserably oppressed.  
The next plot which they no less endeavoured then obtained, was to weaken his Majesty both at home and abroad, and indeed which way could they weaken him more in England, then to employ the cabinet counsel to persuade him to make sale of his own proper hereditary land, and so without Parliaments to raise money for the supporting of his royal dignity by unlawful and unusual means, which could not but much withdraw the dutiful affection of the subject from him, wherein his chiefest strength consisted, and how could they have devised more to lessen the reputation of his wisdom and puissance with foreign Princes then by inciting his Majesty (as if he had married the conditions as well as the daughter of France) to begin a war with Spain, and then to conclude it partly without, and partly against the approbation of the Parliament, and so afterwards to France itself.  
To this may be added the taking of Rochel, for all the aid of his Majesty's ships; the little assistance and countenance which of late times hath been from England afforded to the Netherlands, and from all their premises it may be concluded, that there were all destructive ways to the Protestant Religion, and therefore promoted and prosecuted by great persons Popishly addicted to the ruin of our Peace, our Lives, Liberties, and (which is yet much dearer to us) our Religion. Was the plot small may we think by billeting of soldiers in all parts of this Kingdom, by intending to bring in foreign forces, especially many hundred of Germane horse, and by proposing Martial law to be put into execution, which now we see to take effect, yet it was under pretence of law, when there was neither Reason, Law, nor Equity for the raising of forces or any such great sums of money as there was raised, which yet had they been employed in any reasonable proportion for the good of the King or Kingdom, neither King nor Kingdom had been so distressed as now they are, but the truth is, as such vast sums were illegally extorted, so they were as fraudulentally disposed without his Majesty's privity, even to the strengthening of the professed enemies of our Religion, which now threaten the subjugation, if not the utter extirpation of it.  
The next plot was for brass money, and the making of it currant, whilst the French of all other nations were permitted to carry our gold and silver, away, were they of what Sex, Age, or condition soever. How much the Queen Mother had for her part is not, nor ever will be certainly known, but, it is conceived upon very good ground, that she and her jesuitical train have had two millions of money, which is ten times as much, as the Queen her daughter brought into this land; and if this hath not been a heavy burden to poor England, let all men judge. But this is not all, have not the jesuites had free egress and regress and intimate acquaintance, with Canterbury, Wren, and the rest of the Popish Bishops, whereby they procured the discountenancing, yea the suppressing of the most able and faithful Divines and Ministers of the Gospel, when in the mean time who were advanced and put into places of trust or preferment, but Arminians, and Socinians, whose poisonous tenants in some and many things are steps to Rome, in others more dangerous as being more subtly contrived.  
We cannot here omit (by their instigation) the receiving into favour of many great Delinquents who fled from the justice of the Parliament: the cessation of Arms in Ireland to bring over the war and Popery into England; the Queen's negotiation beyond the Seas, for the continuance and fomenting this unnatural war, partly in her own person, and partly by her seconds. And to this end the pawning of the jewels of the Crown. The several plots daily contrived to corrupt our soldiers, citizens, nay even our Divines themselves, all which are unquiet and dangerous issues and effects of the French and Spanish Counsels.  
And now (when they can proceed no further in their mischievous devices) they endeavoured to continue the last and worst of all, which is still managed by the help of their old sure friends who are so gracious at Court, and that is the separating of his Majesty from his high Cour● of Parliament, and in keeping him from them, as also in causing an ill opinion in some people and Counties against their own representative body so advisedly now assembled, and at first aggregated from all shires. And indeed of all other practices this is most fearful, destructive, and the most desperate, for who could imagine (did it not evidently appear) that the Papists both of the French and Spanish faction should have such an influence on his Majesty, as to make him believe that his Parliament is set against him and the good of the land, and that Privadoes and Sycophants at Court are better affected and more able to seek for the good and safety of the King and Kingdom than they are, as if it were probable the wisdom, and till now the never suspected integrity of both the Houses of Parliament, by which the King and Kingdom have always flourished could ever prove so treacherous to King or Kingdom, or be so careless of themselves and their posterity as to do things dishonest and treasonable, or if it were possible that men for the most part who were never greatly entrusted by his Majesty, or the State, should be able to give more faithful Counsel, or be less subject to erroneous advices than they are, who now sit in our high Court of Parliament. Surely as after many storms at sea, we now begin to see the day and land again, so great thanks for their pains, prudence and patience is to be given to God by us, to whom (no doubt) the benefit will redound.  
FINIS.   

This is Licenced and entered into the Register Book of Stationers Hall.