When the Court of the Queen's Bench dropped charges against Manley and her printer and publishers in February 1710, Manley was apparently confident enough that she would be safe from further prosecution to proceed with a sequel to The New Atalantis. Lady Mary Pierrepont had expressed concern, in a November 1709 letter to a friend, that Manley's arrest would deter other opposition writers. She observed:

Although we have no epistolary record of Pierrepont's reaction to Memoirs of Europe, presumably she would have been pleased that, following the dismissal of the charges against her, Manley was not deterred from writing satire. Pierrepont might also have observed that as Manley's party secured control of Anne's ministry, her second political secret history shifted in tone from satire to panegyric.

The Whigs still retained control of Anne's ministry on 11 May 1710, the day Manley recorded her name as author of the first volume of Memoirs of Europe in Stationers Hall. However, Godolphin and Marlborough had been losing ground politically since early that year. Queen Anne had ignored Marlborough's recommendations for two senior military appointments in early January and ignored Sunderland's proposed candidates for bishoprics in February. She had also refused Marlborough's request to be made captain general for life as well as his and the Junto's attempts to have Abigail Masham removed from her court position. Adding a mark of further disregard, Queen Anne proposed Abigail Masham's brother John Hill (d. 1735) be promoted from colonel to general, over Marlborough's objections.