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Possibly (B)eddoes

Either a reference to the author Thomas Lovell Beddoes or Edward Beddoes a character in Murder on the Orient Express.

The name Edward can be interpreted as Rich Guard ( I am an Edward myself ! )

I can see Royal = real

as in the whole Sang Real = holy blood or San Greal = Holy Grail, Da Vinci Code thing, but can't see the rest.

Just got it - Pen is a male swan - Male scratching M for marks is Ale

Sorry - meant sang real = royal blood.

By tyhe way, I agree, you need a Chambers if you're going to be doing Crosswords of the caliber of Merphisto.

JDO - absolutely brilliant.

How does the complier expect us 'non Edwards' to know the rich guard connection? Now that you have told us we can look up that it is derived from Old English words ead (meaning "happy" or 'prosperous') and weard (meaning "guard"). ...

However, without you I would have been here until eternity.

In the light of and overshadowed by such brilliance, I am thinking of going back to the Daily Mirror and Take a Break!!!!!!

Gosh ! You'll make me blush !

I have been solving for over thirty years. Chambers and a programme I use called TEA are of course indispensable. AND I have actually won the Mephisto runner-up prize, twice if I remember right.

I can at least equal the thirty years. The whole point of crosswords like Mephisto is that they use a lot of obscure words, either in the clue or the answer, and these need recourse to a good dictionary, and the one that I understand most compilers refer to is Chambers.

... and "priestrid" as Henry of hid turbulent Becket

Thanks for help JDOvengloves

You may be interested in TheAnswerbank wordplay for 'ale' in 'real ale', below:

ALEmbic = another word for a still, minus m (marks) and bic (ball point pen)