Rebel woman's European protégé cut down in kidnap? (8,3,4)

'rebel' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'woman's european protege cut down in kidnap?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'woman's' could be 'her' (belonging to a woman) and 'her' is present in the answer.
'european' could be 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU) and 'e' is located in the answer.
'protege' could be 'ward' (both can mean a child in someone's care) and 'ward' is found within the answer.
'cut' could be 'hew' (hew can mean to chop or cut) and 'hew' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'take' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?