A farmer said to have been a king (6)
I believe the answer is:
attila
'king' is the definition.
(I know that Attila is a king)
'a farmer said to have been a' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is within the answer.
'to' could be 'til' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'til' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ta' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for attila that I've seen before include "Fifth century king of the Huns" , "Hunnish conqueror" , "The greatest Hun leader" , "Brutal Hunnish king" , "King of the Huns, invader of the Roman Empire" .)