Character shown by king given cry of encouragement (4)
I believe the answer is:
role
'character' is the definition.
(I know that character can be written as role)
'king given cry of encouragement' is the wordplay.
'king' becomes 'R' (abbreviation of Latin rex).
'given' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'cry of encouragement' becomes 'ole' (Spanish word used to encourage someone).
'r'+'ole'='ROLE'
'shown by' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for role that I've seen before include "Character" , "Part in play, film etc" , "Duty" , "A part of lore" , "Impersonation" .)