he Livonian War, which broke out in 1558, brought about drastic changes at Padise. In 1559 the Livonian Order dissolved the monastery and used the monastic buildings as a fortification. The following summer, after buying the title of the Bishop of Reval (Tallinn) for himselt, Duke Magnus demanded that the order should cede the Padise Monastery to him. Because of the ongoing war the Livonian Diet (Landtag) that gathered in Pernau (Pärnu) (on 6 August1560) gave in to his demand and promised to cede the monastery together with its lands in a month’s time. Soon, however, there was a dramatic turn of events and Padise never became Duke Magnus’s possession. On 24 June 1561 the Swedish settled at Toompea in Tallinn, on 8 September they occupied Padise and the Keila manor. The former Cistercian monastery of Padise became an important base for extending Swedish rule to West Estonia; the Padise fief was created from the monastic landholdings and a bailiff appointed to manage it on behalf of the king. This was the beginning of a period which lasted for sixty years, to be interrupted only by the Russian invasion for five years (20 Feb.1576–28 Dec.1580).
