Editing Eton College (section)

== History ==
{{see also|Latin school|Neo-Latin#Latin in school education 1500–1700}}
===Establishment===
[[File:MK17834 Eton College.jpg|thumb|A statue of [[Henry VI of England|Henry VI]], the college's founder, in the school yard and Lupton's Tower (background)]]
[[File:Eton College by Loggan 1690 - R - slpl ste02048 merge.jpeg|thumb|A 1690 engraving of Eton College by [[David Loggan]]]]
[[File:Canaletto (II) 005.jpg|thumb|''[[Eton College (painting)|Eton College]]'' by [[Canaletto]], 1754]]

Eton College was founded by [[Henry VI of England|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 used [[Winchester College]] as a model, visiting at least six times (in 1441, 1444, 1446, 1447, 1448, 1449, 1451, 1452) and having its statutes transcribed. Henry appointed Winchester's headmaster, [[William Waynflete]], as Eton's [[Provost (education)|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.{{cn|date=July 2023}}

When Henry VI founded the school, he granted it a large number of endowments, including much valuable land. The group of [[feoffee]]s appointed by the king to receive forfeited lands of the [[Alien priory|Alien Priories]] for the endowment of Eton were as follows:<ref>Watts, John, ''Henry VI and the Politics of Kingship'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=qTP4CF_boeoC&pg=PA169 pp. 169–70], quoting Calendar of [[Patent Rolls]] 1436–41, pp. 454, 471.</ref>
* [[Henry Chichele]], [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] (d. 1443)
* [[Thomas Spofford]], [[Bishop of Hereford]] (d. 1456)
* [[John Low (bishop)|John Low]], [[Bishop of Rochester]] (d. 1467)
* [[William Ayscough]], [[Bishop of Salisbury]] (d. 1450)
* [[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 [[Lord Privy Seal|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 [[Kinver]], [[Staffordshire]], an [[Esquire of the Body]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kingswinford.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/com/kinver/kinverchurch.htm |title=Kinver Church – kingswinford.org |access-date=4 July 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150225020702/http://www.kingswinford.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/com/kinver/kinverchurch.htm |archive-date=25 February 2015}}</ref>
* 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 [[Eton College Chapel|College Chapel]] to be the longest in Europe, and several religious [[relic]]s, supposedly including a part of the [[True Cross]] and the [[Crown of Thorns]].<ref name=lrb>{{cite news|last=Hope|first=Charles|title=At Eton|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n05/charles-hope/at-eton|access-date=28 February 2013 |newspaper=London Review of Books|date=7 March 2013}}</ref> He persuaded the then [[Pope]], [[Eugene IV]], to grant him a privilege unparalleled anywhere in England: the right to grant [[indulgence]]s to [[penitent]]s on the [[Feast of the Assumption]]. The college also came into possession of one of England's [[English Apocalypse manuscripts|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,<ref>Nevill. p. 5.</ref> 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,<ref>Nevill, p. 5.</ref> with 18, or possibly 17, bays (there are eight today) was stopped when Henry VI was deposed. Only the [[choir (architecture)|Quire]] of the intended building was completed. Eton's first Head Master, [[William Waynflete]], founder of Magdalen College, Oxford and previously headmaster of [[Winchester College]],<ref>Nevill, p. 4.</ref> 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.<ref>Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England – Buckinghamshire</ref>

As the school suffered reduced income while still under construction, the completion and further development of the school have since depended to some extent on wealthy benefactors. Building resumed when [[Roger Lupton]] was [[Provost (education)|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 (education)|Provost]] Allestree gave a range to close the west side of School Yard between Lower School and Chapel".<ref>Nikolaus Pevsner, op. cit. p. 119.</ref> 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.

=== 19th century onwards ===
[[File:"View of classroom at Eton College, England, showing plainess of the furniture and names carved thereon by the... - NARA - 298013.tif|thumb|An Eton College classroom in the 19th century]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-13350, England, Rudermannschaft.jpg|thumb|Eton College pupils dressed as members of various rowing crews taking part in the "Procession of Boats" on the [[River Thames]] during Fourth of June celebrations in 1932]]

The [[Duke of Wellington]] is often incorrectly quoted as saying that "The [[Battle of Waterloo]] was won on the playing-fields of Eton."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,762878,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080308061735/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,762878,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 March 2008 |title=Ploughing Fields of Eton |magazine=Time |location=New York |date=27 November 1939}}</ref> Wellington was at Eton from 1781 to 1784 and was to send his sons there. According to Nevill (citing the historian [[Edward Shepherd Creasy|Sir Edward Creasy]]), what Wellington said, while passing an Eton cricket match many decades later, was, "There grows the stuff that won Waterloo",<ref>Nevill, p. 125.</ref> a remark Nevill construes as a reference to "the manly character induced by games and sport" among English youth generally, not a comment about Eton specifically. In 1889, Sir William Fraser conflated this uncorroborated remark with the one attributed to him by Count Charles de Montalembert's ''C'est ici qu'a été gagnée la bataille de Waterloo'' ("It is here that the Battle of Waterloo was won").

The architect [[John Shaw Jr]] (1803–1870) became a surveyor to Eton. He designed New Buildings (1844–46),<ref>Nikolaus Pevsner, op. cit.</ref> Provost [[Francis Hodgson]]'s addition to provide better accommodation for collegers, who until then had mostly lived in Long Chamber, a long first-floor room where conditions were inhumane.<ref>Extracts from c. 20 of ''A History of Eton College'' by Maxwell Lyte:<br />These rooms contained little besides wooden bedsteads and bureaus. Chairs and tables [were] for the privileged few, and the wind whistled through the gaping casements. Candlesticks were made by folding the cover of a school book and cutting a hole to receive the candle. A servant was supposed to sweep the rooms, make beds and light fires, but this was all. The lower boys had to fetch water from the pump for [the seniors]. They themselves had neither washstands nor basins...New boys were tossed in blankets until about 1832. In 1834, "the inmates of a workhouse are better fed than the scholars of Eton ... Boys who could not pay for a private room [in the town] are said to have undergone privations that would be thought inhuman if inflicted on a galley slave."</ref>

Following complaints about the finances, buildings and management of Eton, the [[Clarendon Commission]] was set up in 1861 as a [[royal commission]] to investigate the state of nine schools in England, including Eton.<ref>J. Stuart Maclure, ''Educational Documents: England and Wales, 1816 to present day'' (Methuen Young Books, 1973, {{ISBN|978-0-416-78290-5}}), p. 83</ref>
Questioned by the commission in 1862, Head Master [[Edward Balston]] came under attack for his view that in the classroom little time could be spared for subjects other than [[classical studies]].<ref>''Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Revenues and Management of certain Colleges and Schools, and the Studies pursued and Instruction given therein; with an Appendix and Evidence'', vol. III (evidence) (Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1864), [https://books.google.com/books?id=IIRLAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA114] pp. 114–116</ref>

As with other public schools,<ref>''The Boy's Own Paper'' November 1915 to September 1919</ref> a scheme was devised towards the end of the 19th century to familiarise privileged schoolboys with social conditions in deprived areas.<ref>Arthur C. Benson, Hugh, Memoirs of a Brother, chapter eight</ref> The project of establishing an "[[Eton Mission]]" in the crowded district of [[Hackney Wick]] in east London was started at the beginning of 1880, and it lasted until 1971 when it was decided that a more local project (at [[Dorney]]) would be more realistic. However over the years much money was raised for the Eton Mission, a fine church by [[G. F. Bodley]] was erected; many Etonians visited and stimulated among other things the [[Eton Manor Boys' Club]], a notable rowing club which has survived the Mission itself, and the [[59 Club]] for motorcyclists.

The large and ornate School Hall and School Library (by L. K. Hall) were erected in 1906–08 across the road from Upper School as the school's memorial to the Etonians who had died in the [[Boer War]]. Many tablets in the cloisters and chapel commemorate the large number of dead Etonians of the [[First World War]]. A bomb destroyed part of Upper School in [[World War II]] and blew out many windows in the chapel. The college commissioned replacements by [[Evie Hone]] (1949–52) and by [[John Piper (artist)|John Piper]] and [[Patrick Reyntiens]] (1959 onward).

Among Head Masters of the late 19th and 20th centuries were [[Cyril Alington]], [[Robert Birley]] and [[Anthony Chenevix-Trench]]. [[M. R. James]] was a Provost. Between the years 1926 and 1939, Eton pupils were included as part of a group of around 20 or 30 selected [[Public school (United Kingdom)|public school]] boys who travelled yearly to various [[British Empire]] countries as part of the Public School Boys Empire Tour. The first tour travelled to Australia; the last went to Canada. The purpose of the tours was to encourage Empire settlement, with the boys possibly becoming district officers in India or imperial governors of the Dominions.<ref>{{cite web |title=Clarendon Archive: The School Empire-Tour |date=2021 |url= http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/archivesandmanuscripts/2021/01/04/school-empire-tour/ |access-date=6 August 2023 |quote=Between 1926 and 1939, the School Empire-Tour Committee, an offshoot of the Church of England Council of Empire Settlement, organised a series of Empire tours for British public school boys that started with a trip to Australia in 1926}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Griffiths |first1=J. |title=Public School Boys Empire Tour |date=1931 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781351024822-13 |isbn=978-1-351-02482-2 |s2cid=239230496 |url= https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351024822-13/public-school-boys-empire-tour-times-educational-supplement-18th-august-1931-321-john-griffiths |access-date=6 August 2023 |quote=This document, relating to the connection between the public schools and Empire, records the tour of public school boys to Australia in the early 1930s. Between 1926 and 1939 the School Empire Tour Committee, an offshoot of the Church of England Council of Settlement, organised a series of Empire tours for British public-school boys. The first tour travelled to Australia; the last went to Canada.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=British Public School Boys Visiting Adelaide |url= https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/54872123 |access-date=6 August 2023 |work=The Register |location= Adelaide |date=20 September 1926 |page=10}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Harper |first1=M. |title=Personal contact is worth a ton of text-books': educational tours of the empire, 1926–39 |journal=The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History |date=2023 |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=48–76 |publisher=Informa UK Limited |doi=10.1080/0308653042000279669 |s2cid=162217400 |url= https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0308653042000279669 |access-date=6 August 2023 |quote=...[student from] Eton ...[student from] Clifton}}</ref>

In 1959, the college constructed a [[nuclear bunker]] to house the college's Provost and fellows. The facility is now used for storage.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/e/eton_college/index.html |title=Eton College Site Visit Report |publisher=Subbrit.org.uk |date=28 October 2000 |access-date=3 September 2011}}</ref> In 1969, [[Dillibe Onyeama]] became the first black person to obtain his school-leaving certificate{{clarify|date=September 2023}} from Eton. Three years later Onyeama was banned from visiting Eton after he published a book which described the racism that he experienced during his time at the school.<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 June 2020 |title=The racist questions I was asked at Eton |publisher=[[BBC News]] |url= https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53062502 |access-date=23 June 2020}}</ref> [[Simon Henderson]], current Head Master of Eton, apologised to Onyeama for the treatment he endured during his time at the school, although Onyeama did not think the apology was necessary.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53139325 |publisher=[[BBC News]] |title=Eton apologises to Nigerian ex-pupil Onyeama for racism |date=22 June 2020}}</ref>

In 2005, the school was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools found to have breached the [[Competition Act 1998]] (see [[Eton College controversies]]). In 2011, plans to attack Eton College were found on the body of a senior [[al-Qaeda]] leader shot dead in [[Somalia]].<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/8578710/Eton-and-The-Ritz-on-al-Qaeda-hit-list.html |archive-url= https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/8578710/Eton-and-The-Ritz-on-al-Qaeda-hit-list.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Eton and The Ritz on al-Qaeda hit list |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |date=16 June 2011 |last=Farmer |first=Ben |access-date=18 June 2011}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

=== Controversies ===
{{Main|Eton College controversies}}