cahn

I think he finally caved because he'd had Wilhelmine Encke under spy surveillance for years and concluded that she actually was no one's tool and if he kept insisting that future FW2 got rid of the one stable relationship in his life, it could result in him being influenced by all the other women he'd have sex with who could be in the pay of *insert other power here*. Thus Wilhelmine E. became the first Maitresse en titre in Prussia since F1's day.

(FW2 didn't remain physically faithful to her, but not least since it was all the younger mistresses who threw jealous fits and kept handing out ultimatums, while Wilhelmine kept her cool, she remained his firm fave (and also nursed him when he got sick etc.) until his death. His son was horrid to her and had her exiled and confiscated her money, blaming her for his father's unfaithfulness to his mother. Enter Napoleon, who as mentioned in that Hohenzollern post you linked to me kicked FW3's ass, and among many other things ended Wilhelmine Encke's exile and had her money restored. So she died in comfort and in Berlin, but then had bad luck again as the part where her grave was became part of the death zone once the Berlin wall went up. German history and the enterprising Berlin girl: a trial.