Demetrius was a member of the Gurieli, a family of princes-regnant of Guria. His parentage is not directly attested in the surviving chronicles and documents; Demetrius appears to have been a son of
Simon I Gurieli, In 1660, Kaikhosro, with
Ottoman support, returned and put Demetrius to flight to Imereti. Demetrius was able to resume his rule in Guria after having Prince
Machutadze murdered Kaikhosro. In the conflict with Kaikhosro, Demetrius relied on
Vameq III Dadiani, an ambitious
prince of Mingrelia and briefly king of Imereti, whom he eventually betrayed and joined King
Vakhtang V, King of Kartli, who intervened in the chaotic civil war in Imereti in 1661. Amid a series of coups and counter-coups, one part of the Imeretian nobles made Demetre king after the abdication of Vakhtang V's son
Archil in 1663. His rule proved short-lived: the Imeretians caught, blinded, and expelled him and restored
Bagrat V. According to the 18th-century Georgian historian
Prince Vakhushti, Demetrius' final downfall occurred in 1668. Thereafter he disappeared from history. As prince of Guria, he was succeeded by
George III Gurieli, an exiled son of his erstwhile foe, Kaikhosro Gurieli. Vakhushti's dating is sometimes questioned in modern historiography, notably by Davit Khakhutaishvili, who argued that Demetrius' rule in Guria should have ended no later than 1664. ==References==