Authorised captive queen to be dropped into English sea (9)
I believe the answer is:
empowered
'authorised' is the definition.
(empowering is a kind of authorising)
'captive queen to be dropped into english sea' is the wordplay.
'captive' becomes 'pow' (POW is an example).
'queen' becomes 'er' (abbreviation for Elizabeth Regina).
'to be dropped into' is an insertion indicator.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'sea' becomes 'med' (abbreviation of Mediterranean).
'pow'+'er'='power'
'e'+'med'='emed'
'power' inserted inside 'emed' is 'EMPOWERED'.
(Another definition for empowered that I've seen is " Given authority".)