January 13th 1077: County of Agder
The fall of 1075 also witnessed an influx of moneylenders in Mide, who were drawn to the county as a result of two factors: primo, the lack of a strong central authority to regulate them and secundo, the domination of the nobility over the Church in ecclesiastical matters. Pleased with the influx of money, which once more restored the bottom line to around two goldoons profit a month, Torstein, and more importantly his regency council, freely allowed the newcomers reign, despite the Papacy's strident objections and murmurings among the devout in both counties that the boy-count was showing sacreligious leanings.
This proved to be an important event, for after a year and a half of quiet and stability in Torstein's reign, news of the immigration at long last spread to the County of Agder. Emboldened by the report, the burghers gathered together outside the count's dwelling, protesting the realm codex of feudal contract.
"Your father enslaved us, sire! Now is your chance to right his wrong and free us! Do away with the tyranny of feudal law and return to the freer customs we enjoyed in the time before him!"
"Free us! Free us! Free us!"
"FREE US! FREE US! FREE THE BURGHERS AND THE PEASANTS!"
As the mob's cries grew louder, the court watched from the security of curtains placed in front of the high windows.
"Torstein, dear, the right thing to do would be to heed the people's cries. Give them their freedom and you will be all the more loved for it," counseled his mother.
"Absurd! Your mother is wrong as usual, Your Lordship. Give into these unruly ingrates and they will demand more and more, until you have nothing left. They mock you, think you just a little boy. If you surrender to them now, you will never be respected in your own territory." Snofrid was adamant in her opposition to Cundo. The shame the Spy Master felt at the young Count's fifth birthday feast still had not been forgotten, nor the source of it forgiven.
Marshal Gudrod coughed and stepped in, "Your Lordship. Remember what I told you during last week's lesson."
Torstein listened to each of these points, smiled at his tutor, and stepped to the window, throwing back the curtain. His six-year old voice, though high-pitched, carried, reaching out to the protestors below.
"My people! You are either for me or not for me! If you are for me, leave! If you are not for me, Gudrod will make you!"
A buzz broke out over the hive for a few minutes before the demonstrators' leader, a mildly wealthy merchant named Heinrich Stradson, shouted back up at his lord, "We will not leave until you agree to change the laws, Sire!"
"Then you are not for me!" Rage purpling his slender face, Torstein turned and marched back to his court, nodding to his marshal, "Gudrod, take the guards and kill them all."
Gudrod bowed, "As you wish, Your Lordship", and started to make his way for the door.
"No, child! You can not kill innocent people who are only asking to be free! Not even your father would approve of this!" Grief and horror warred on his mother's face, tears trickling down her cheeks.
Snofrid said nothing, too shocked at the turn of events to speak.
"They are not for me, Mother. They must learn!"
A mere forty-five minutes later, three hundred and seven corpses became the new grass of a lawn turned red with blood.
On a pike before the main entrance sat Heinrich Stradson's head, a grisly reminder and warning to all those who would dare to oppose the boy Count in any way.
February 3rd 1077: County of Agder
In spite of the warning, shortly after the Massacre of Agder, as it came to be called, the burghers and peasants took arms, declaring themselves in open rebellion against Torstein and the regency council.
All income from the province was now uncollectable and the situation looked quite precarious indeed for the young nobleman.
Then, in the first few days of February, the strangely precocious Torstein devised a plan.
"They fear and respect me now in Europe because I said no. I read a little of Father's diary last night. He wanted to be Duke. I will be Duke and I know how I will be Duke."
The court stared at him, but none dared to question the suddenly bold and daring youth. Instead, they waited for their liege to continue.
Torstein stepped off the throne and smiled at all of them in a way they found strangely unsettling. Something had happened to him at the Massacre of Agder, but none of them knew just quite what it was.
"I had a dream last night. In that dream, Father came to me and told me that our family once ruled Dublin County. I must have what is mine. I will be the Count of Dublin. Mother, write the paper Father told me about and send it to every court in Europe."
Had Lodin truly come from beyond the grave to instruct his son? It was a question that weighed on each court member's mind, but none gave serious thought to voicing it, or even to hint at objection to the youngest of Agder's declaration. They were all far too afraid of him now.
By nightfall, the claim was out, and Cundo cried in her room as she had not since Sigrid's death. First she had lost her daughter, then her husband. Now she had lost her son.
Worse yet, unbeknownst to her, accompanying the claim on Dublin was a declaration of war against the Duke of Leinster.
Once more, the banner of the of Agder family would fly on the battlefield.
Perhaps it's that marital education that has turned him so bloodthirsty and unpious...
The faithful Tutor-Marshal