Guillaume Rym

Guillaume Rym, counsellor and pensioner of the City of Ghent, is a politically astute figure whose influence exceeds the modest title by which he is introduced. At the reception of the Flemish ambassadors, he stands out among the formally dressed civic officials as a subtle operator: he can negotiate with a cardinal in whispers, work with Louis XI on secret business, and recognize the force carried by a man who insists on being called a hosier. His part is brief, but it links concealed political power with the more visible authority of the people.

Identity and Political Position

Rym appears among the forty-eight ambassadors of Maximilian of Austria, led by the Abbot of Saint-Bertin and the Grand Bailiff of Ghent. Their names and civic offices are announced to the crowd in a disorderly manner, and their solemnity draws stifled laughter. Against this imposing procession of aldermen, burgomasters, and bailiffs, Rym is identified as the exception: his face seems at once intelligent and crafty, and the cardinal steps toward him with three paces and a profound bow. The gesture marks a recognition that his small official designation does not capture his importance.

The narrator says that few in the assembly know who Rym is. He is described as a rare political genius, one who might have achieved public prominence in a revolutionary age but, in the fifteenth century, operates instead through hidden intrigues. The image of living in mines gives his influence an underground character: he is not presented as a public leader addressing a crowd, but as a figure whose activity runs through concealed channels. The narrator also places him in a familiar working relationship with Louis XI, with whom he plots and whose secret undertakings he sometimes assists. The crowd’s surprise at the cardinal’s deference thus dramatizes the gap between a name and title visible to the public and the political reach known to powerful insiders.

Diplomacy at the Ambassadors’ Reception

Rym’s tact becomes visible when Jacques Coppenole arrives beside him. Coppenole gives his occupation as a hosier at the sign of the Three Little Chains in Ghent. The usher recoils at the prospect of announcing a tradesman amid the formal company, and the cardinal is troubled: he has spent two days trying to make the Flemish delegation appear more presentable to the public, and Coppenole’s unembellished self-identification threatens that effort.

Rym approaches the usher and quietly proposes a more dignified form of announcement, naming Coppenole as clerk of the aldermen of Ghent. The cardinal then repeats the title aloud and adds a further honorific for the city. That public intervention defeats the purpose of Rym’s discreet repair. Coppenole has heard the exchange and is able to hold to his own presentation; the account explicitly suggests that Rym alone might have resolved the embarrassment had Coppenole not heard the cardinal. The episode reveals Rym’s skill as a mediator, but also the limits of mediation when the person being managed understands the maneuver and chooses not to accept its terms.

Coppenole, the Cardinal, and Popular Authority

Rym’s role in the encounter is defined by his contrast with the two men he observes. The cardinal is abashed and troubled by the disruption of ceremonial rank; Coppenole remains tranquil and haughty, and treats the title of hosier as equal in dignity to the titles surrounding him. Rym, meanwhile, watches them with a smile described as both amused and superior. His position is neither the cardinal’s anxious defense of ceremony nor Coppenole’s open defiance of it: he sees the exchange as a political contest and recognizes what each man represents.

The narrator explains why Coppenole’s manner resonates with the crowd. He and the spectators belong to the people, and their communication is immediate. The hosier’s ability to stand his ground before the cardinal gives the onlookers a sense of shared dignity, especially against a world in which ordinary people are accustomed to obeying the cardinal’s attendants and other officers. Rym’s attempt to soften Coppenole’s announcement therefore has a political dimension beyond etiquette. The scene shows the difficulty of translating popular authority into the formal language of office without diminishing the very independence that makes it powerful.

Coppenole’s influence is not merely a matter of appearance. The narrator recalls his capacity to move the people of Ghent against powerful favorites and to rally them with a word, even when the Maid of Flanders pleaded with them. In this account, the hosier could bring down the heads of Guy d’Hymbercourt and Chancellor Guillaume Hugonet by raising his leather-clad arm. Rym’s attentive smile places him close to this force, but does not make him its source: his influence is covert and diplomatic, while Coppenole’s is public and rooted in popular allegiance.

Wit and Narrative Function

Rym’s political intelligence is accompanied by a dry, economical wit. When the cardinal laughs that the rector of the university ought also to have begun without waiting for him, he asks Rym’s opinion. Rym replies that they should be content to have escaped half the comedy. The remark treats the ceremony itself as a performance and turns the cardinal’s belated arrival into part of the joke. It also shows the ease with which Rym can speak within the cardinal’s circle, even while retaining a sardonic distance from its pageantry.

Together, the reception and the exchange about the university rector establish Rym as a minor but revealing presence in the novel’s political world. He is recognized by a cardinal, secretly useful to Louis XI, and perceptive enough to read the force behind Coppenole’s plain occupational title. Yet his diplomacy cannot always contain the conflict it detects: when Coppenole hears the effort to elevate his status, the announcement becomes a public encounter between inherited ceremony and civic self-assertion. Rym’s importance lies in that double vision. He understands both the hidden dealings of power and the moment when popular authority refuses to remain hidden.