in the late XIX-th century Gautier d'Épinal  was identified as a knight (Gautier V) and a landlord of Ruppes,
now a very small village in Lorraine
Two images of the church in Ruppes 
Discs:

• Gautier d'Épinal. Remembrance.
  2008 Challenge Classics
  
• "Touz esforciez" Trouvères en Lorraine.
  2004 Pierre Vérany

Dictionaries and encyclopaedias often mention Gautier d'Épinal in articles dealing with the music in Lotharingia. Several writers refer to an obscure figure to whom are attributed some 15 to 30 chansons.
The researches of the Marquis of Pange a century ago have identified him as the chavalier Gautier V d'Èpinal (dominus Galterus /Walterus dictus miles de Espinal"), who was born between 1205 and 1230, and died in 1272.

However, Dr. Robert Lug, University of Frankfurt, proposes a completely different identificaion in his "Der Chansonnier de Saint-Germain-des_Pré Das alteste volkssprachlige Liederbuch Europas (2008). According to Dr. Lug, gautier was a cleric, the nephew of the Bishop of Metz. This Gautier died ca.1232.
This identification makes Gautier a contemporary of the so called Guerre des Amis ("The Friend's War") which then gripped Metz, at the time the fifth largest city in Europe north of the Alps, a largely Francophone town belonging to the Holy Roman Empire.

Contrary to the conventions of courtly literature of his time, the poetry of Gautier gives us considerable insight into his inner world.
Gautier's arguments are well-informed, as if he lived at the end of a civilization rather than at its beginning. His poetry, like his music, is permeated by the nostalgia of a modern man who knows that the Golden Age never existed and never will.
All his writings possess a grave tone: even the joy and triumph of love have a character of lamentation on human limitations.

As with all trouvères, it would be dangerous to place a definitive ascription on these melodies. But the cycle associated with Gautier represents a body of work characterized by indeniable unity, cohesion, and uniqueness of style.
His melodic imagination boldly transcends the framework of established structures, allowing the free flow of profusely ornamented melodies.