For the first part of the war, the royalists and the Catholic League were uneasy allies against their common enemy, the Huguenots. Henry sent Joyeuse into the field against Navarre, while he himself intended to meet the approaching German and Swiss armies. At the Battle of Coutras, Navarre defeated the royal army led by Joyeuse; the duke himself was slain at the battle. It was the first victory won by the Huguenots in the battlefield. For his part, Henry III successfully prevented the junction of the German and Swiss armies. The Swiss were his allies, and had come to invade France to free him from subjection; but Henry III insisted that their invasion was not in his favor, but against him, forcing them to return home. The Germans, led by Fabien I, Burgrave of Dohna, wanted to fight against the Duke of Guise, in order to win a victory like Coutras. He recruited some of the retreating Swiss, who had no scruple fighting against Guise. But at the Battle of Vimory, Guise took the Germans by surprise, and routed them.