Cowardly, the French, when surrounded by bravery (7)
I believe the answer is:
gutless
'cowardly' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'the french when surrounded by bravery' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'les' (plural form of 'the' in French).
'when surrounded by' indicates putting letters inside.
'bravery' becomes 'guts' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'les' going inside 'guts' is 'GUTLESS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gutless that I've seen before include "Perhaps trim" , "Cowardly, lacking intestines" , "chicken?" , "Yellow" , "Lacking any backbone" .)