The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 7 letter word CARTE BLANCHE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
C
A
R
T
E
B
L
A
N
C
H
E
More clues leading to the result CARTE BLANCHE
- Free choice moving tabernacle round church
- No restrictions here as church is set in converted tabernacle
- Bishop in association with knight in longing for authority
- Blank cheque cashed with random initials, the balance imbalanced!
- A free hand got by revolutionary bishop, in association with a knight, earlier
- With total freedom, Rachel can’t be made to change
- Mistakenly blench at stopping charge for ultimate latitude
- Authority from church to enter ruined tabernacle
- The freedom of Paris?
- Central beach could offer total freedom
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "A free hand" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case a free hand = carte blanche.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.