page_title: Eton College
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Eton College / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Henry VI statue in the Eton College yard Deutsch: Eine Statue Heinrich VI. im Hof des Eton College
context_page_description: Eton College is a 13–18 independent boarding school for boys in the parish of Eton, near Windsor in Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore", as a sister institution to King's College, Cambridge, making it the 18th-oldest Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference school. Eton's history and influence have made it one of the most prestigious schools in the world.
  Following the public school tradition, Eton is a full boarding school, which means pupils live at the school seven days a week, and it is one of only four such remaining single-sex boys', boarding-only independent senior schools in the United Kingdom. The remainder have since become co-educational: Rugby, Charterhouse, Westminster, and Shrewsbury. Eton has educated prime ministers, world leaders, Nobel laureates and generations of the aristocracy and has been referred to as "the chief nurse of England's statesmen." Eton admitted its first black student, Dillibe Onyeama, in 1968 though he was later banned from visiting the school after he wrote a book about the racism he experienced in his time there.
  Eton charges up to £42,501 per year.
context_section_description: Eton College was founded by King Henry VI as a charity school to provide free education to 70 poor boys who would then go on to King's College, Cambridge, founded by the same King in 1441. Henry took Winchester College as his model, visiting on many occasions, borrowing its statutes and removing its headmaster and some of the scholars to start his new school.
  When Henry VI founded the school, he granted it a large number of endowments, including much valuable land. The group of feoffees appointed by the king to receive forfeited lands of the Alien Priories for the endowment of Eton were as follows:
  Archbishop Chichele
  Bishop Stafford
  Bishop Lowe
  Bishop Ayscough
  William de la Pole, 1st Marquess of Suffolk (1396–1450) (later Duke of Suffolk)
  John Somerset (d. 1454), Chancellor of the Exchequer and the king's doctor
  Thomas Beckington (c. 1390–1465), Archdeacon of Buckingham, the king's secretary and later Keeper of the Privy Seal
  Richard Andrew (d. 1477), first Warden of All Souls College, Oxford, later the king's secretary
  Adam Moleyns (d. 1450), Clerk of the Council
  John Hampton (d. 1472) of Kniver, Staffordshire, an Esquire of the Body
  James Fiennes, another member of the Royal Household
  William Tresham, another member of the Royal Household
  It was intended to have formidable buildings (Henry intended the nave of the College Chapel to be the longest in Europe) and several religious relics, supposedly including a part of the True Cross and the Crown of Thorns. He persuaded the then Pope, Eugene IV, to grant him a privilege unparalleled anywhere in England: the right to grant indulgences to penitents on the Feast of the Assumption. The college also came into possession of one of England's Apocalypse manuscripts.
  However, when Henry was deposed by King Edward IV in 1461, the new King annulled all grants to the school and removed most of its assets and treasures to St George's Chapel, Windsor, on the other side of the River Thames. Legend has it that Edward's mistress, Jane Shore, intervened on the school's behalf. She was able to save a good part of the school, although the royal bequest and the number of staff were much reduced.
  Construction of the chapel, originally intended to be slightly over twice as long, with 18, or possibly 17, bays (there are eight today) was stopped when Henry VI was deposed. Only the Quire of the intended building was completed. Eton's first Headmaster, William Waynflete, founder of Magdalen College, Oxford and previously Head Master of Winchester College, built the ante-chapel that completed the chapel. The important wall paintings in the chapel and the brick north range of the present School Yard also date from the 1480s; the lower storeys of the cloister, including College Hall, were built between 1441 and 1460.
  As the school suffered reduced income while still under construction, the completion and further development of the school has since depended to some extent on wealthy benefactors. Building resumed when Roger Lupton was Provost, around 1517. His name is borne by the big gatehouse in the west range of the cloisters, fronting School Yard, perhaps the most famous image of the school. This range includes the important interiors of the Parlour, Election Hall, and Election Chamber, where most of the 18th century "leaving portraits" are kept.
  "After Lupton's time, nothing important was built until about 1670, when Provost Allestree gave a range to close the west side of School Yard between Lower School and Chapel". This was remodelled later and completed in 1694 by Matthew Bankes, Master Carpenter of the Royal Works. The last important addition to the central college buildings was the College Library, in the south range of the cloister, 1725–29, by Thomas Rowland. It has a very important collection of books and manuscripts.
caption: Statue of the founder, Henry VI, in School Yard
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