Survive lord who ran to seize power (4)
I believe the answer is:
cope
'survive lord who ran' is the definition.
'cope' can be an answer for 'survive' (I've seen this before). I'm not sure about the rest of the definition.
'seize power' is the wordplay.
'seize' becomes 'cop' (copping is a kind of seizing).
'power' becomes 'e' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cop'+'e'='COPE'
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cope that I've seen before include "Vestment; get along" , "Priest's cloak; deal (with)" , "Manage - poet, first name 18" , "Priest's ceremonial cloak" , "Deal with, manage ok" .)