This website posits that the Crimson King is based on Frederick II, a Roman Emperor who is often mythologized as the first "Modern Man" - he was frequently at war with the papacy and was particularly invested in science and the arts. HOWEVER – if you want to read an extremely thorough and concrete reading of all of Sinfield's lyrics for King Crimson you can find a comprehensive and bugnuts series of essays hosted on his own website but written by someone else: If the song is written from the perspective of the "Crimson King" (which I think is open to interpretation) it matches with his depiction on the inside cover as a far more tragic and sympathetic figure than one might expect. Personally, I think this song is less concerned with explicitly "modern" concerns like Schizoid Man and Epitaph and is connected to those two more thematically than literally. Every colorful medieval trapping the song refers to is immediately followed up by an acknowledgement of failure or disappointment. I've always interpreted it more generally as being about the failing days of the "Crimson King's Empire" – whatever you want that to be a metaphor for.
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