Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" & The French Revolution

"Revolutionaries wait For my head on a silver plate Just a puppet on a lonely string Oh who would ever want to be king?"

"Revolutonaries" suggest people who wanted him to be killed in which it goes on to say that they are waiting for his head on a silver plate which can only mean one thing: the guillotine. The guillotine was a beheading device that Louis was killed on. the "who would ever want to be king?" part refers the "label" they gave to Louis: "Louis XVI, l'homme qui ne voulait pas être roi" (Louis XVI, the man who didn't want to be a king).

"For some reason I can't explain Once you'd gone there was never Never an honest word And that was when I ruled the world"

Because he was so caught up with the power he had, he never told a word of the truth when he ruled. He kept lying to his people, drunk with power, money, and secrets. They say that the history is always written by the winners, and that's true. After the revolution, the king was falsely remembered to be "weak, without personnality, dominated by his woman, stupid, fat, a good for nothing" (and even to be a tyrant and a despot which was hard to imagine, all the people who knew truely the king knew that he could has been anything but a tyrant), this is how the revolutionnaries wanted the king to be remembered, all in order to save and defend the Revolution. But the truth is that Louis XVI loved his people to the much that he didn't want to spill blood even when the times got hard, he believed in a revolution (but a monarchic one, that's why somehow, he led the revolution). That's maybe the fault I reproche him: he could had spilled blood and mainted the order of the country but he didn't, that was the safetest option for him but he didn't want to do it, but badly the times never forgive the powerful nations that wants to get weakned. Blood had to be spilled at that time anyway, so he payed with his own, he was heard to say when about to get guillotined, 'People of France, I am innocent, I forgive those who are responsible for my death. I pray to God that the blood spilled here never falls on France or on you, my unfortunate people ...' When he tried to speak to the crowd and say these words, he was cut short by a roll on the drums.) I've said all of this just to talk about the part when CD say "Once you go, there was never, never an honest word " it's like the king is disappointed to see how misunderstood he was : There's no recognition of all the efforts he tried to do (and yes, unlike all what was commonly thought, he did!), everybody is pointing him, they are lying about him, he feels betrayed by his people.

"For some reason I can't explain I know St Peter won't call my name" Never an honest word But that was when I ruled the world"

Even though Louis claimed to be fighting in the name of Christianity, he knows himself that St. Peter, the gatekeeper of Heaven, will not welcome him because he is going to hell for all that he has committed.

"I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing Roman cavalry choirs are singing Be my mirror my sword and shield Missionaries in a foreign field"

He frequently used religion to cover up his corruption and his doings so that explains the "missionaries in a foreign field" and the fact that he kept implementing conquest to raid other nations in the name of Christianity. Louis XVI was recognized to be a learned king: he was reading a lot, and passioned by the geography and the maritime navigation. He was sending missionaries to discover and study foreign countries.

"I used to roll the dice Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes Listened as the crowd would sing Now the old king is dead long live the king"

He then talks about rolling the dice -- gambling with power and how that eventually led the people to rejoice over the fact that the old king is now dead because he was a tyrant and crusader and his ruling would soon be replaced. The dead old king could also refer to Louis XVI's grandfather, Louis XV. Louis XVI had become a king when Louis XV died with the smallpox. He was waiting with Marie-Antoinette in a parlor (the heir apparent wasn't alowed to enter the room of the dying king in order not to get affected. He was going to be king) when the courtiers came running to them and screaming all over the castle after hearing that the king passed away in his chamber : "The old king is dead! Long live the king". That's when Louis XVI fell on his knees and said his famous prayer: "Dear God, guide and protect us. We are too young to reign."

"One minute I held the key Next the walls were closed on me And I discovered that my castles stand Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand"

The "minute" connotes that everything happened so very fast that Louis XVI didn't even realize it until his castles, which represent his power, fell so quickly because of its poor foundation (salt and sand) and that the walls were soon closed. When Louis XVI became a king and started to reign and discovered how bad the situation of the country was, he was trapped. He became the king (of a nation in decadence). That bringed absolute power (restaured at the time of Louis XIV), but also a lot of responsibilities, and a hope of change from the people of France, who were living in misery for so long and to who God bringed a new young king full of good intent. (Louis XVI ruled at 19 years old, and succeed at his grandfather who was well known for debauchery, and also for his negligence of the affairs of the country in his last years. His death was like a relief for the people at that time.)

"It was a wicked and wild wind Blew down the doors to let me in Shattered windows and the sound of drums People couldn't believe what I'd become"

There is a story that when Louis XVI was walking up to the beheading device, he tried to say something to the people but the drums were too loud so no one could hear him. This could be what the "sound of drums" is suggesting. People also couldn't believe what they had let Louis become: an absolute tyrant.

"I used to rule the world Seas would rise when I gave the word Now in the morning I sleep alone Sweep the streets I used to own"

This first stanza is to show how Louis XVI used to have immense power over everyone to the point where "seas would rise when he gave the word", but that he eventually turned into somewhat of a slave, servant, or beggar in which he has to "sweep the streets" as he is begging for mercy from the people. "Now in the morning, I sleep alone" is Louis XVI in his last moments, captured in "La conciergerie", where he spends his last days before the trial. He's seperated from his family (the Queen and their 3 children). He is alone and he's thinking about what he had become.