In "A Scandal in Bohemia" (SCAN), Dr Watson describes Irene Adler:

If Holmes was not in love with Miss Adler, what was it that caused him to esteem her so highly?

The only time we meet Irene Adler is in 1888, in SCAN. The King of Bohemia, who cannot be described as her friend, calls her "the well-known adventuress", admits that she has foiled his attempts to steal a photograph from her, says she is "quick and resolute" with "a soul of steel" and finally exclaims, "Would she not have made an admirable queen?". She has, undoubtedly, made quite an impression on him.

Although the King expects her name to be familiar to him, Holmes does not seem to have known her. He asks Watson to look her up in the Index and murmurs a few 'Hmm's', as he runs through the entry. Holmes's only notes on her show date of birth, a brief and not very successful career, and the fact that she is living in London. She does not seem to have been a well-known adventuress. Why was she in the Index at all? She must have come to his attention before.

It is clear that Holmes was not completely forthright with the King or with Watson. Consider the following:

The afternoon following the King's visit, Holmes tells Watson about his surveillance of Adler, how he participated in her wedding, and his plans for that night. Much has been written on the irregularities in the wedding between Miss Adler and Mr Norton. It need only be noted here that Holmes was amused, and that neither Adler nor Norton seemed to know him.

That evening, in the "character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist clergyman", Holmes gains entry to Miss Adler's house and discovers where she has hidden the photograph. Believing that he has made his exit undetected, Holmes is in a good humor as he strolls home with Watson, until

As we later discover, the slim youth in an ulster was none other than Irene Adler. It is apparent that Holmes wants Watson to believe that this was a trivial incident, of no importance to the case. We, however, are not so easily duped. Holmes was in disguise. A resident of the neighborhood would have called out, "Good-night, Dr Watson" not, "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes". Furthermore, are we to believe that Sherlock Holmes would not have recognized the voice of a woman to whom he had spoken less than an hour before? A more likely explanation is that Holmes has realized that Irene Adler has discovered the true identity of the clergyman to whom she had just ministered, and wishes to hide her awareness from Watson.

Is it not strange that Holmes doesn't change his plans? Rather than going immediately to Briony Lodge, he waits until the next morning. He arrives with the King to find Adler and the photograph gone. Watson describes Holmes as looking at the maid "with a questioning and rather startled gaze", and staggering back as "white with chagrin and surprise" he utters, "Do you mean that she has left England?". For whose benefit is this little piece of melodrama? The King's, of course.

Finding that Adler has left a note and a photograph of herself in the secret hiding place, Holmes snubs the King, takes the photograph and leaves.

Why did Holmes conceal that he was aware of the King's mission; why did he feign surprise that Adler had escaped; and what is there in this short adventure that so affected Holmes that he would honor Adler with the title "The Woman"? She was not his most formidable opponent; surely that title goes to Moriarty. This was not the first time that he was bested. In "The Five Orange Pips", 1887, he remarks, "I have been beaten four times - three times by men, and once by a woman." This is our first clue.

I propose that the woman to whom Holmes refers in 1887 is Irene Adler.

Let us consider the following:

This exchange in "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor", 1886,

This statement in "His Last Bow",

Note that at the time of SCAN, 1888, Irene and Wilhelm were already estranged. Thus, Holmes could not have brought about their separation.

We may conclude that, prior to 1886, Holmes had performed a service of some importance to the King of Scandinavia, and that this service was to separate Irene Adler from Wilhelm, then Crown Prince of Bohemia.

From the information given in SCAN, we can even date this "Separation From Bohemia". Wilhelm tells us that, "Some five years ago…..I made the acquaintance of…..Irene Adler". Thus, the two met somewhere between late 1882 and early1883, a period for which Watson has left us no case records. It is likely that by 1884 the affair had become serious.

We may surmise that the family attempted to convince Wilhelm to give up his unsuitable paramour, and failing that, called in Sherlock Holmes. How Holmes brought about the separation between Irene and Wilhelm is not known, but we can be sure that she was not supposed to have retained the compromising cabinet-sized photograph.

Having been beaten once by this woman, Holmes was not ready to reveal, even to Watson, that he was facing her again. This is why he pretended not to have known her. He knew, after she revealed that she had penetrated his disguise, that he would not be able to catch her. Rather than admit this to the King, he went through with his original plan.

Imagine Holmes's feeling of relief upon reading these words from Irene Adler,

And the King's declaration that

Adler bested Holmes in 1884 when, although she lost Wilhelm, she kept the photograph. She again bested him when she escaped with the photograph in 1888. Yet, it was equally important to Holmes that she graciously refrained from revealing that she had beaten him twice, and satisfied the King that he was in no danger from her. That is why, "when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her photograph, it is always under the honourable title of The Woman".