The French general died in traditional story (6)
I believe the answer is:
legend
'traditional story' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'the french general died' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'general' becomes 'gen'.
'died' becomes 'd' (abbreviation next to the year of someone's death).
'le'+'gen'+'d'='LEGEND'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for legend that I've seen before include "King Arthur" , "Saga" , "famous player?" , "Story from long ago" , "Key" .)