One books royal contest, with audience (9)
I believe the answer is:
interview
'audience' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'one books royal contest with' is the wordplay.
'one' becomes 'I' (Roman numeral).
'books' becomes 'nt' (abbreviation for New Testament).
'royal' becomes 'er' (abbreviation for Elizabeth Regina).
'contest with' becomes 'view' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'i'+'nt'+'er'+'view'='INTERVIEW'
(Other definitions for interview that I've seen before include "Assessment of applicant - discussion" , "format for talk show" , "encounter" , "Question and answer session" , "job talk" .)