During Queen Anne's reign, Whig writers lost their monopoly on secret history. This period witnessed the publication of several highly popular secret histories by Tory polemicists, including: Ned Ward's Secret History of the Calves-Head Club (1703), a compendium of republican drinking songs and anti-republican diatribe which went through a large number of ever-expanding editions during the first few decades of the eighteenth century; The Secret History of Queen Zarah and the Zarazians (1705), a roman à clef that attacks Queen Anne's Whig favourite, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, which was formerly attributed to Delarivier Manley but is probably by Joseph Browne; and The Secret History of Arlus and Odolphus (1710), attributed to Colley Cibber, which reveals the reasons why the moderate Tory, Robert Harley (Arlus), was ousted from his position as Secretary of State in 1708 by the Earl of Godolphin (Odolphus), and how he regained popular and royal favour, returning to power in 1710. Such texts pay no heed to the implicit connections between secret history's claims to reveal the secrets of monarchs and ministers and a Whig political agenda, with its antipathy towards arbitrary government and scepticism towards Court culture. Tory secret history argues that corrupt Whig politicians have as much to hide as the Stuart monarchs ever did.

But the appointment of Robert Harley to the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1710, his swift promotion to Lord Treasurer in 1711 and his fall from power in 1714 were events that reignited Whig interest in secret history. Upon first assuming office in 1710, Harley hoped to form a government that would draw on talent from both the Whig and Tory ranks. Pressure from the Tory backbenches and reluctance on the part of Whigs to cooperate with Harley's policies, however, meant that he found himself at the head of an increasingly hardline or highflying Tory administration.