La commanderie

- Season 1

(2010)

1375, France is being ruined by the Hundred Years war against the English dynasty, causing poverty and terror. The hospitallers Assir 'commanderie' (religious order of knights unit), a castle fief in Burdundy on the pilgrimage route to Compostella, is a haven of relative tranquility. The order receives considerable taxes and other levies, destined for its crusading efforts. Some officials receive favors in kind, other systematically skim the earnings and apply extortion. When they hear of an accounts inspection, they arrange a brigands raid to have the proof burned.

Low-born captain Thomas Cortemain is in jail, risking torture and execution for masterminding the embezzlement from the Hospitallers. His knight-accomplice Giraud is redeemed by his rich family, which benefited even more. Thomas cuts a deal: his redemption for the secret where Templar official Guillaume allegedly hid a golden treasure after his order's disbanding by French crown, as the pope assigned their wealth to the Hospitallers. Thomas seeks helps from the Breton renegade mercenary turned brigand leader and the brothel madam. Rascal oblate pre-teen goose herd ...

By the time captain Thomas Cortemain has worked out the mysterious inscription-clue to the Templars gold, he overhears the commander promise it to the papal legate and a Byzantine imperial envoy for a crusade against the Saracens. Master Elias Sabet deeply regrets discussing theology with the chaplain, as it leads to a peasant couple whose baby they begged naively to resuscitate long enough to be baptized is put through 'divine ordeal' (torture) so one can be executed for its 'homicide', leaving the other crippled. Giraud must help the brothel, a major tenant, solve ...

Ambitious knight hospitaller Hugues d'Avène calls it miracle fraud when captain Cortemain's prayer to St.John to heal mysteriously ill Constance if he abandons the quest for the Templars gold is exhausted. The commander refuses to brave the patron saint, even when Hughues threatens to have the Rhodes HQ depose Roger for lack of zeal in the order's crusading purpose. The Breton violently denies the peasants entry to the Virgin's cave sanctuary to pray for harvest as 'disturbing' his rare fancy for private devotion. The commander refuses help as it's outside the order's...

After Hugues's corps is found in the forest, his funeral attracts a royal visitor, the duke of Anjou, a crusading comrade in arms. Thomas is charged with the investigation and soon gets his beloved Constance's confession. But he sets up the Breton brigand leader, after warning him the duke will hunt him as obvious suspect. After the bishop's men beat up farmer Fasiole for failing to pay multiply excessive levies, Giraud offers him to move to derelict order lands. The bishop has no legal recourse, but sends the inquisitor to torture Fasiole into confessions he doesn't ...

The Breton brigand leader saw trough Thomas's trap, but was still killed in a fight with his sneakily following man. Chabert takes his place. The duke bring Thomas papal dispensation from his vow to stop seeking the Templars gold, and even a promise to have Constance's marriage annulled. Thomas finds the clues, but tells only Constance, how he wants to flee with, Giraud who can't decipher what's in Arabic and master Sabet, who can but demands the gold may not finance more bloody crusading. De Montet tells Constance he fired her maid, but actually tries to extract the ...

Captain Cortemain strikes a deal with master Sabet to save lives and share the gold. He arranges for Chabert's 'company' of brigands to be recruited as crusading mercenaries by the royal duke of Anjou. Actually retrieving the treasure proves an adventure, during which Thomas witnesses lord Geoffroy de Montet being throated by his wife's captured maid. Giraud's lust becomes even more dangerous after the arrival of stone-mason Laurent, a gay seducer. Niot is offered a chance to study and enter the clergy, while his parents order him to hide and remain a farmer.

The greedy duke is furious to find the Templars' treasure chests contain only parchments concerning debts to them nobody will still honor. Captain Thomas is thrown in jail, his friends fear torture to death. Instead he's ordered to extract the truth from his haughty lover, who even incites him to torture her by branding for show so as to set a deadly trap. Unable to expel his gay stonemason-lover Laurent because of the pest quarantine, Géraud succumbs to 'Sodomy' temptation again, with bloody outcome.