Snake exhausted after cornering queen (7)

I believe the answer is:

serpent

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'snake' is the definition.
(I know that snake can be written as serpent)

'after cornering queen' is the wordplay.
'after' becomes 'spent' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cornering' indicates putting letters inside (to corner can mean to trap).
'queen' becomes 'ER' (abbreviation for Elizabeth Regina).
'spent' placed around 'er' is 'SERPENT'.

'exhausted' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for serpent that I've seen before include "Snake - old wind instrument" , "Large snake; sly person" , "Tempting" , "Early wind instrument" , "(In literature) a snake" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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