Eton College receiving financial assistance from the school continues to increase. Eton College was founded by King 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 took Winchester College as his model, visiting on many occasions, borrowing its Statutes and removing its Headmaster and some of the Scholars to start his new school. 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
Eton College have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed." A Freedom of Information request in 2005 revealed that Eton had received £2,652 in farming subsidies in 2004 under the Common Agricultural Policy. Asked to explain under what grounds it was eligible to receive farming subsidies, Eton admitted that it was 'a bit of a mystery'. "Panorama" revealed in March 2012 that farming subsidies were granted to Eton for 'environmental improvements', in effect 'being paid without having to do any farming at all'. Figures obtained by "The Daily Telegraph" had revealed that,