The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume II. The End of the Middle Ages.
§ 13. Henry VI, Eton and King’s College
It was as a direct imitator of Wykeham and copier of his statutes that Henry VI, in 1440–1, founded the allied institutions of King’s College, Cambridge, and “the College Roiall of oure Ladie of Eton beside Windesor.” Half the fellows and scholars of Winchester were transferred to Eton to constitute the nucleus of the royal school, of which William Waynflete, the Winchester school master, became an early provost. The royal school at Eton, rising under the shadow of the palace of Windsor and under the eye of the court, became, henceforth, the school par excellence of the sons and descendants of the English nobility. Whilst it owed much to the collegers who passed from its foundation to the ranks of the fellows of King’, it owed still more in fame to the wealthy oppidans, who crowded to share in its teaching. It is not the least among the legacies of great men to the future that they excite emulation. William Waynflete became the founder of Magdalen (1448); archbishop Chicheley, a Wykehamist, founded All Souls (1438).