September 2nd 1082: County of Agder
"Why are we still paying money to the Church? The Pope has excommunicated me! The fat priests don't deserve money! We won't donate any more!"
Torstein's face flushed with fury as he looked at the accounting parchment for the first time in his life, the red number by the Church expenses vexing him beyond all sanity.
Clearing her throat, Cundo stepped forward, "My son, the Church helps our subjects. I know you are angry with His Holiness, but the Catholic Church does good works. Let not your personal feud get in the way of helping those who need it most."
"I will not stand for it, Mother! No more money for the Church and let the clergy have no power in any of my counties!"
From across the room, Snofrid interjected, "Your Lordship, do what you will with Agder and Mide, but I plead you to leave Dublin alone. There is your only province that is profitable and if you upset the balance there, you will once again begin to go into debt."
"All right, Snofrid. I will leave Dublin alone." To Torstein, money had become the most important thing, superseding everything else.
For it was only with money that he could at last become Duke...
July 25th 1083: County of Agder
The most immediate effect of slashing the Church donations to nothing was that the Tri-Counties were now showing two and one third goldoons profit a month, nearly double what the original showing was.
On October 12th, 1082, the Mideans rebelled for a fourth time and stormed the fort. Once more, they were crushed by Marshal Trond Galtung's forces by November 3rd. Some began to think that the insurrection was at last starting to die down, for just one hundred and seventy-five fighters challenged the Norwegian garrison this time, the lowest of any attempted overthrow.
Due to the increased power of the burghers in Agder from the crushing of the clergy, towns and hamlets grew in size and economic might, restoring the county to its usual levels of wealth. Unfortunately, this made no difference to the royal treasury, for the county remained in revolt.
This did not sit well with Torstein.
Pacing in his room, he clenched his newly-teenaged hands, growling at the walls, "All this wealth Agder and Mide should be producing, but they're not! I should be making more, much more money than I am now! I need money! I need to be Duke!"
Thusly weighed under by financial concerns and the expectations that he felt his dead father would have wanted him to fulfill, Torstein became, in addition to his numerous other flaws, stressed.
One of the biggest sources of stress in thirteen-year old Torstein's life