King in great spirits when told (7)
I believe the answer is:
related
'told' is the definition.
(as in relating a story)
'king in great spirits when' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'king' could be 'r' (abbreviation for rex, king in Latin) and 'r' is found in the answer.
'when' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'lated' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for related that I've seen before include "spilled the beans" , "As siblings obviously are" , "Recounted" , "were sympathetic" , "Father and son have to be" .)