He wrote moralising lyrics, either religious or political, and ten of his works survive, including five sirventes, two pastorelas, one canso, one planh for an anonymous domna (lady), and one Crusade song.
Support for the later date comes from an allusion in the poem to the taunts of the reys de Marroc ('king of Morocco'),[2] 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.
[3] 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.
"[3] Evidence that the Crusade song can be placed after Alarcos is the sentiment expressed in lines 51–54 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 .
[4] 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.
[7] The third reference is to he "from whom part of his legitimate overlordship is withdrawn", probably an allusion to Simon de Montfort the Elder, who in January 1213 had been reprimanded by Pope Innocent III for seizing the County of Comminges and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 cloak of religion".