One fights with others before the French king (8)
I believe the answer is:
wrestler
'one fights' is the definition.
'others before the french king' is the wordplay.
'others' becomes 'wrest' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the french' becomes 'le'.
'king' becomes 'r' (r is abbreviation for rex).
'wrest'+'le'+'r'='WRESTLER'
'with' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for wrestler that I've seen before include "he struggles" , "One struggling" , "Professional fighter" , "Fight contestant" , "Professional grappler, a grunt-and-groan athlete" .)