Drest son of Donuel facts for kids

Drest son of Donuel (Old Irish: Drust mac Domnaill or Drust mac Dúngail; died 677) was king of the Picts from c. 663 until 672. Like his brother and predecessor Gartnait son of Donuel, and Gartnait's predecessor Talorgan son of Eanfrith, he reigned as a puppet king under 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 king lists give him a reign of six or seven 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's powerbase was probably as king of the northern Pictish kingdom of Fortriu.

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. Stephen of Ripon records in his 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 Ecgfrith's cousin 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 he remained in the orbit of the Abbey of Iona, until his death in 677.