Crossword Genius

Ruler's position rising amid ruins of Troy (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

royalty

'ruler's' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'position rising amid ruins of troy' is the wordplay.
'position' becomes 'lay' (laying is a kind of positioning**).
'rising' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (going up in a down clue).
'amid' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'ruins of' is an anagram indicator.
'lay' reversed gives 'yal'.
'troy' anagrammed gives 'roty'.
'yal' put into 'roty' is 'ROYALTY'.

(Other definitions for royalty that I've seen before include "Author's perquisite" , "Author's percentage" , "Kings, queens and their families" , "Regal status" , "King or queen's status" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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