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Aggressive former royal, one with beef (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

butcher

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'beef' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.

'aggressive former royal one' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'royal' could be 'er' (abbreviation for Elizabeth Regina) and 'er' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'butch' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'with' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for butcher that I've seen before include "mess up?" , "Killer" , "He cuts up and sells meat" , "One sells meat" , "Kill brutally" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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