Spain, for example, where vacuous royalty supports nobleman (7)
I believe the answer is:
country
'spain for example' is the definition.
(spain is a kind of country)
'vacuous royalty supports nobleman' is the wordplay.
'vacuous' means to remove the middle letters.
'supports' says to put letters next to each other (bottom letters provide a support for the top ones).
'nobleman' becomes 'count' (count is a kind of nobleman).
'royalty' with its middle removed is 'ry'.
'ry' after 'count' is 'COUNTRY'.
'where' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for country that I've seen before include "State; region" , "Rural" , "See 9" , "land?" , "Nation" .)