Drest son of Donuel

Drest son of Donuel (Template:Langx or Template:Langx; died 677) was king of the Picts from Template:Circa 663 until 672. Like his brother and predecessor Gartnait son of Donuel (Gartnait IV), and Gartnait's predecessor Talorgan son of Eanfrith (Talorgan I), he reigned as a puppet king under the Northumbrian king Oswiu.Template:Sfn Gartnait and Drest may have been sons of Domnall Brecc, who was king of Dál Riata from c. 629 until he was killed in 642.Template:Sfn

The length of Drest's reign is uncertain: the Pictish Chronicle give him a reign of six or seven years, while contemporary Irish annals imply a reign of eight or nine years.Template:Sfn His accession to the kingship may be connected to the Battle of Luith Feirn recorded in the Annals of Ulster as taking place in 664,Template:Sfn or Oswiu may have forced an interregnum on the kingdom from 663–666,Template:Sfn after the death of Drest's brother Gartnait in 663.Template:Sfn Powerbase of Drest was probably as king of the northern Pictish kingdom of Fortriu.Template:Sfn

Drest was expelled from his kingdom in 671, an event normally connected with the failed Pictish revolt against Northumbrian rule that culminated in crushing defeat at the hands of Ecgfrith of Northumbria at the Battle of Two Rivers.Template:Sfn Stephen of Ripon records in his Vita Sancti Wilfrithi (Life of St Wilfrid) that the Picts had "gathered together innumerable nations (gentes) from every nook and corner in the north",Template:Sfn suggesting that Drest had joined forces with other territories which were otherwise not politically united.Template:Sfn Successor of Drest was the cousin of Ecgfrith Bridei son of Beli, who would eventually defeat and kill Ecgfrith and overthrow the Northumbrian hegemony at the Battle of Dun Nechtain in 685.Template:Sfn

After his expulsion Drest continued to receive attention from Irish annals, suggesting he remained in the orbit of the Abbey of Iona, until his death in 677.Template:Sfn

Sources

• Anderson, Alan Orr; Early Sources of Scottish History A.D. 500–1286, volume 1. Reprinted with corrections, Paul Watkins, Stamford, 1990. Template:ISBN

External links

• CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork includes the Annals of Ulster, Tigernach, the Four Masters and Innisfallen, the Chronicon Scotorum, the Lebor Bretnach (which includes the Duan Albanach), Genealogies, and various Lives of Saints. Most are translated into English or translations are in progress.
• Pictish Chronicle Template:Webarchive

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