Gavaudan Gavaudan ( fl . c . 1195 – 1215 , known in 1212 – 1213 ) was a troubadour and hired soldier ( " soudadier " ) at the courts of both Raymond V and Raymond VI of Toulouse and later on in Castile . He was from Gévaudan , as his name ( probably a nickname ) implies . He wrote moralising lyrics , either religious or political , and ten of his works survive , including five " sirventes " , two " pastorela s " , one " canso " , one " planh " for an anonymous " domna " ( lady ) , and one Crusade song . He is sometime clumped in a primitive Marcabru nian " school " of poetry alongside Bernart Marti , Bernart de Venzac , and Peire d ' Alvernhe . He developed a hermetic style , combining elements of the trobar ric and trobar clus . Pastorelas . Gavaudan composed two " pastorelas " customarily dated to around 1200 : " Desamparatz , ses companho " and " L ' autre dia , per un mati " . They are one of the earliest and best examples of a subgenre of " pastorela " that , picking up on the themes of the earliest " pastorelas " , in which quaint shepherdesses were easily seduced by noble men , and those of Marcabru and his school , wherein the witty shepherdesses rebuff the oafish knights , intermingled the two earlier themes into one , in which the shepherdess and the knight fall in love . In Gavaudan , the knight and the shepherdess turn to each other in retreat from the dreariness of their normal lives and their love is true , but not courtly love . Gavaudan perceived himself as an innovator , as his poem " Ieu no sui pars als autres trobadors " ( " I am not like other troubadours " ) indicates . That poem is the " manifesto " of his poetry and in it he declares that his work is only meant to be clear " als bos entendedors " : " to good listeners ( i . e . those who understand well ) " . Crusade song . Gavaudan ' s Crusade song , " Senhor , per nostres peccatz " , has been variously dated to either 1195 or 1210 – 12 . The nature of the song is an " invocation to the whole of Christendom " to take up the Reconquista in Spain . It was definitely written after the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187 , since it refers to that event . If it was written in 1195 , it was probably before the Battle of Alarcos on 19 July , where Alfonso VIII of Castile was defeated by the Almohad sultan of Morocco , Abu Jusuf . Gavaudan mentions Alfonso VIII in another song , " Lo vers dech far en tal rima " . The later date ( 1210 – 12 ) places the songs on the eve of the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa ( 16 July 1212 ) . Considering that Abdullah Muhammad al - Nasir , Abu Jusuf ' s successor in Morocco , had crossed into Andalusia on 16 March 1211 , it is probable that the song was written between that date and the battle . Support for the later date comes from an allusion in the poem to the taunts of the " reys de Marroc " , which probably refers to al - Nasir ' s boast that he would march all the way to Rome and cleanse Saint Peter ' s Basilica with Mohammed ' s sword . Gavaudan probably felt personally threatened by this , since the march to Rome would undoubtedly pass through Occitania , thus the Moors of his poem say " Franc , faiz nos loc ; / nostr ' es Proensa e Tolzas , / entro al Puey totz los mejas " : " Frank , make us room ; / ours are Provence and Toulouse , / as far as Le Puy the whole country in between . " Evidence that the Crusade song can be placed after Alarcos is the sentiment expressed in lines 51 – 4 that the Spanish states between Occitania and the Moors have been defeated and the men north of the Pyrenees must therefore take the Reconquista into their hands . Gavaudan mentions " Alamans , Frances , Cambrezis , / Engles , Bretos et Angevis , / Biarns , Gascos ab nos mesclatz / el . s Provensals . . . " ( " Germans , Frenchmen , men of Cambrai / Englishmen , Bretons and Angevins , / Béarn ais , Gascons with us mixed / the Provençals . . . " ) . This last reference also places Gavaudan in a Provençal contingent already with Alfonso in Spain ; his " sirventes " was written to the audience back home , in hopes that they would come join the effort against the Moors . A date of January 1212 has been postulated in order to give Gavaudan enough time for his poem to have its effect . Some scholars ( Saverio Guida , for instance ) have defended a dating of 1196 – 1197 . The " tornada " of the poem contains Gavaudan ' s prediction for the outcome of the engagement : Albigensian Crusade . Only one of Gavaudan ' s songs besides " Senhor , per nostres peccatz " can be dated with any confidence : " A la plus longa nuech de l ' an " . In this song Gavaudan verbally defends the count of Toulouse , then Raymond VI , from the Albigensian Crusade being waged against him . Three references situate it in time ( c . 1213 ) and place ( Toulouse ) . One reference is to the count as " ducx , coms , marques " ( " duke , count , margrave " ) , a triple title which referred to the fact that the counts of Toulouse were also Dukes of Narbonne and Margraves of Provence . A second reference is to a " foolish white people " , almost certainly the White Brotherhood , a militia established in Toulouse by Folquet de Marselha , erstwhile troubadour and then bishop , in 1211 to quell heresy . The third reference is to he " from whom part of his legitimate overlordship is withdrawn " , probably an allusion to Simon de Montfort the Elder , who in January 1213 had been reprimanded by Pope Innocent III for seizing the County of Comminges and Viscounty of Béarn " under the cloark of religion " .