Potentates connected with the House of Orange? (9)
I believe the answer is:
mandarins
'potentates' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'connected with the house of orange?' is the wordplay.
'connected with' says to put letters next to each other.
'the house of' becomes 's' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'orange?' becomes 'mandarin' (I've seen this in another clue).
's' put after 'mandarin' is 'MANDARINS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for mandarins that I've seen is " High-ranking officials or small oranges".)