William Careless
Royalist officer and companion of King Charles II
Colonel William Careless (surname variants include Carelesse, Carless, Carles and Carlis) (died 1689) was a Royalist officer of the English Civil War. It has been estimated in various written sources that he was born c. 1620, however, it is more likely that he was born c. 1610. He was the second son of John Careless of Broom Hall, Brewood, Staffordshire, and his wife Ellen Fluit. He is chiefly remembered as the companion of King Charles II when the fugitive monarch hid in the Royal Oak following his defeat at the Battle of Worcester. His surname was changed to Carlos, the Spanish for Charles, by order of Charles II. He died in 1689.
Career
The First Civil War
Careless was a member of a recusant Roman Catholic family of Royalist sentiments. After the outbreak of hostilities in 1642 Careless raised a troop of cavalry to fight for Charles I, which he commanded as a captain in the regiment of Thomas Leveson. This regiment was largely officered by men from the Roman Catholic enclave of south Staffordshire.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “William Careless” is royalist officer and companion of King Charles II. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through William, Careless and Royalist, not as a finished interpretation.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8006536. VIAF identifies the subject as 3120156497267517740008. The Library of Congress control number is no2019107407. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1689, 1620, 1610 and 1642.
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This entry incorporates text from “William Careless” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.