The Squire of Fife is a character in Isaac Asimov's Empire series.
About the Great Squire of Fife[]
The Great Squire of Fife, or just referred to as Fife, is the hereditary title of the most powerful noble on the planet Sark. He wasnthe father of Lady Samia of Fife.
As the head of the wealthiest of the five Great Squire families that collectively control the galactic kyrt trade through their dominion over Florina, the Squire of Fife was a figure of immense political and economic power. He was a short man with a beefy torso and stubby, deformed legs that caused him to walk with a ponderous waddle, a fact he concealed by conducting all business from behind a desk. His appearance was imposing, with a large, majestic head featuring a wide, lipless mouth, a broad nose, and a pointed, cleft chin, framed by blue-black hair brushed rigidly back.
His primary concern was the preservation of Sark's kyrt monopoly. A year before main events, he convened the other Great Squires, presenting a theory that Trantor was behind the disappearance of a Spatio-analyst who possessed knowledge dangerous to Florina, arguing this was a prelude to a Trantorian takeover. When this initial threat failed to materialize, he was mocked by his rivals. Later, when patrollers were killed and the missing Spatio-analyst was found to be on Florina,
Fife reconvened the conference, accusing one of the other Squires of being "X," a traitor who had psycho-probed the analyst. His political maneuvering was ultimately undermined by the revelations of the Townman, Myrlyn Terens, who confessed to being the psycho-prober. Fife was finally confronted with the Spatio-analyst's confirmed theory of Florina's impending stellar destruction, the Nova crisis. Forced to choose between the planet's evacuation and the collapse of the kyrt trade due to imminent off-world synthesis of the fabric, he pragmatically, if reluctantly, entered into negotiations with Trantor to manage the evacuation and salvage what remained of Sark's economic interests.