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Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (fl. 1180 – 1207) was a Provençal troubadour and, later in his life, knight. His life was spent mainly in Italian courts until 1203, when he joined the Fourth Crusade. His writings, particularly the so-called Epic Letter, form an important commentary on the politics of the Latin Empire in its earliest years. Vaqueiras's works include a multilingual poem, Eras quan vey verdeyar where he used French, Italian, Galician-Portuguese and Gascon, together with his own Provençal. The only critical edition of Vaqueiras attributes 33 extant songs to him; only eight of the associate melodies have survived. He used a wide range of styles, including a descort, several cansos and tensos, an alba and a gap; he, with Perdigon and Ademar de Peiteus, invented the torneyamen (or, at least, left us its earliest example). One of his songs, "Kalenda Maya", is referred to as an estampida and is considered one of the best troubadour melodies. However, according to the razó, he borrowed the tune from two other musicians. This would explain why the song is called an estampida, which is, theoretically, a purely instrumental piece.