Crossword Genius

Villains in royal company (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

knaves

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

'villains' is the definition.
(I know this)

'royal company' is the wordplay.
'royal' becomes 'k' (abbreviation for king).
'company' becomes 'naves' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'k'+'naves'='KNAVES'

'in' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for knaves that I've seen before include "Loons" , "Scoundrels" , "Four face cards bearing a picture of a young prince" , "Jacks (cards)" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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