Royal house leaders take up drawing or reading (5)
I believe the answer is:
tudor
'royal house' is the definition.
(Tudor is an example)
'leaders take up drawing or reading' is the wordplay.
'leaders' says to take the initial letters.
'reading' becomes 'r' (one of the traditional three R's of education).
The initial letters of 'take up drawing or' is 'tudo'.
'tudo'+'r'='TUDOR'
(Other definitions for tudor that I've seen before include "Name of a royal house" , "Rose" , "Mary" , "English royal dynasty" , "Relating to the English ruling family in the 1500s" .)