It has educated prime ministers , world leaders, Nobel laureates , Academy Award and BAFTA award-winning actors, and generations of the aristocracy , and has been referred to as "the nurse of England's statesmen".
Originally intended as a sister institution to King's College, Cambridge , Eton is known for its history, wealth, and notable alumni, known as Old Etonians. Eton is one of four public schools , along with Harrow , Sherborne and Radley , to have retained the boys-only , boarding -only tradition, which means that its boys live at the school seven days a week during term time.
The remainder of them, including Charterhouse in , Westminster in , [ 11 ] Rugby in , Shrewsbury in , and Winchester in , [ 12 ] have since become co-educational.
Eton College was founded by 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 Henry used Winchester College as a model, visiting at least six times in , , , , , , , and having its statutes transcribed.
Henry appointed Winchester's headmaster, William Waynflete , as Eton's Provost , and transferred some of Winchester's 70 scholars to start his new school. There is a rumour that he also had carts of earth from Winchester transported to Eton. 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: [ 13 ].
