Drest son of Donuel ( or ; died 677) was king of the Picts from 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 may have reigned under the overlordship of the Northumbrian king Oswiu. 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.
The length of Drest's reign is uncertain: the Pictish Chronicle give him a reign of six or seven (67) years, while contemporary Irish annals imply a reign of eight or nine years. 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, or Oswiu may have forced an interregnum on the kingdom from 663–666, after the death of Drest's brother Gartnait in 663. Drest may have been king of the northern Pictish kingdom of Fortriu.
Drest was expelled from his kingdom in 671, an event seen as related to the failed Pictish attack on Northumbria that culminated in crushing defeat at the hands of Ecgfrith of Northumbria at the Battle of Two Rivers. 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", suggesting that Drest had joined forces with other territories which were otherwise not politically united. Drest's successor was a 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.
After his expulsion Drest continued to receive attention from Irish annals, suggesting that he remained in the orbit of the Abbey of Iona, until his death in 677.
References
Sources
Anderson, Alan Orr; Early Sources of Scottish History A.D. 500–1286, volume 1. Reprinted with corrections, Paul Watkins, Stamford, 1990.
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