Eton College
school in Windsor and Maidenhead, UK
Eton College ( EE-tən) is an English public school (a fee-charging boarding school) providing education for boys aged 13–18, located in Eton, Berkshire. The school was founded in 1440 by Henry VI as Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore, and is the largest boarding school in England.
Eton is known for its history, wealth, and notable alumni (Old Etonians), having been referred to as "the nurse of England's statesmen". It is also one of three public schools (the others being Harrow and Radley) to have retained a boys-only, boarding-only tradition.
The school is part of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group.
History
Establishment
Eton College was founded in 1440 by Henry VI as the Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore. It was originally a charity feeder school for King's College, Cambridge, providing a free education for 70 poor boys. Henry used Winchester College as a model, visiting it at least six times and having its statutes transcribed. He then appointed Winchester's headmaster, William Waynflete, as Eton's Provost, and transferred some of Winchester's scholars to start his new school.
Soon after Eton's establishment, Henry granted it a large number of endowments, including much valuable land forfeited from alien priories.
“Eton College” enters the record as school in Windsor and Maidenhead, UK. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Eton, College and school can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q192088. VIAF identifies the subject as 157729206. The Library of Congress control number is n50079557. Authority coordinates are 51.492, -0.609. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1440.
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This entry incorporates text from “Eton College” 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.