Complete the royal historian's dramatic account of the rebellion. Choose the correct verb phrase to show that the knight was the recipient of both the command and the punishment.

To serve as a warning to other traitors, the captured knight _______________ at dawn.

The correct answer is was commanded to be executed.

This is a classic double passive. The knight receives the command (was commanded — simple past passive) and is also the one receiving the punishment (to be executed — passive infinitive).

If we used "was commanded to execute," it would mean the knight was ordered to kill someone else. If we used "commanded to be executed," the sentence would be missing its main auxiliary verb ("was") or it would imply the knight gave the command himself.