Eton College
Eton College, the largest of England's privately controlled boys' secondary schools. Eton is not a college in the American sense, but a preparatory school. It is on the east bank of the Thames River, opposite Windsor. Eton was founded as King's College of Our Lady of Eton by Henry VI in 1440, and it served as a preparatory school for King's College, Cambridge, which was founded at the same time. Eton, long one of England's most aristocratic schools, in the mid-20th century sought to broaden its range of students. Eton's graduates include Percy Bysshe Shelley, the Duke of Wellington, William Pitt the Elder, William Gladstone, and Harold Macmillan.