Capital raised to keep a monarch (7)
I believe the answer is:
emperor
'monarch' is the definition.
(emperor is a kind of monarch)
'capital raised to keep a' is the wordplay.
'capital' becomes 'Rome' (capital of Italy).
'raised' says the letters should be written backwards (going up in a down clue).
'to keep' indicates putting letters inside.
'a' becomes 'per' (eg 'one a day' means 'one per day').
'rome' back-to-front is 'emor'.
'emor' placed around 'per' is 'EMPEROR'.
(Other definitions for emperor that I've seen before include "Ancient Roman ruler" , "Large richly-coloured butterfly" , "Character in 24 ac" , "Beethoven piano concerto, Op. 73" , "Napoleon Bonaparte, for instance" .)