Shows mercy when assistant to monarch puts it on (7)
I believe the answer is:
pardons
'shows' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'mercy when assistant to monarch puts it on' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'when' could be 'on' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'on' is present in the answer.
'assistant' could be 'pa' (personal assistant) and 'pa' is found within the answer.
'monarch' could be 'r' (abbreviation of Latin rex) and 'r' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for pardons that I've seen is " Forgives".)