French man of letters charged and executed on retirement (7)
I believe the answer is:
diderot
'french man of letters' is the definition.
'charged and executed on retirement' is the wordplay.
'charged' becomes 'tore' ('tear' can be a synonym of 'charge').
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'executed' becomes 'did' (doing is a kind of executing).
'on retirement' is a reversal indicator.
'tore'+'did'='toredid'
'toredid' backwards is 'DIDEROT'.
(Other definitions for diderot that I've seen before include "Denis ---, Fr. encyclopaedist" , "Denis --, French philosopher; odd rite (anag.)" , "Denis --- Fr. encyclopedist, D. editor (anag)" , "Denis --, French philosopher and encyclopedist" .)