In France, noble ruler's excessively liberal means of punishment (7,5)
I believe the answer is:
ducking stool
'in france noble' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how they can define each other.
'ruler's excessively liberal means of punishment' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'ruler's' could be 'kings' (king is a kind of ruler) and 'kings' is located in the answer.
'excessively' could be 'too' (to too great a degree) and 'too' is located in the answer.
'liberal' could be 'l' (abbreviation) and 'l' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'duc' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ducking stool that I've seen before include "Offenders took a dip in it" , "Old form of punishment using water" , "Old instrument of punishment, using a chair and water" , "Chair for submerging offenders" , "Chair once used to punish offenders" .)