The following famous old boys of Eton College were born in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.

• Thomas Rotherham (1423–1500), Keeper of the Privy Seal , 1467–1474, Bishop of Rochester, 1468–1472, Bishop of Lincoln, 1472–1480, Lord Chancellor, 1474–1483, and Archbishop of York, 1480–1500
• Alexander Legh (c.1435–c.1504), royal administrator and diplomat
• Oliver King (died 1503), Bishop of Exeter, 1492–1495, and Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1495–1503
• John Barker (fl. c.1471–1482), logician
• John Doget (died 1501), humanist scholar
• Thomas Barowe (died 1499), Master of the Rolls, 1483–1485
• John Kite (died 1537), Archbishop of Armagh, 1513–1521, and Bishop of Carlisle, 1521–1537
• Edward Fox (c.1496–1538), Bishop of Hereford, 1535–1538
• John Frith (1503–1533), Protestant clergyman and martyr
• John Hullier (died 1553), Protestant clergyman and martyr
• Robert Glover (died 1555), Protestant martyr
• Laurence Saunders (died 1555), Protestant preacher and martyr
• Sir Humphrey Gilbert (c.1539–1583), coloniser of Newfoundland
• St Ralph Sherwin (1550–1581), Jesuit priest and martyr
• Blessed Thomas Aufield (1552–1585), Roman Catholic priest and martyr
• John Cowell (1554–1611), Regius Professor of Civil Law, University of Cambridge, 1594–1611
• William Oughtred (1575–1660), mathematician
• Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex (1591–1646), General, Parliamentarian Army, 1642–1645
• Méric Casaubon (1599–1671), classical scholar
• Edmund Waller (1606–1687), poet and anti-Parliamentarian conspirator
• John Pearson (1613–1686), Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge, 1661–1672, and Bishop of Chester, 1673–1686
• Henry More (1614–1687), theologian and philosopher
• Antony Ascham (died 1650), Parliamentarian Ambassador to Spain, 1650, and murder victim
• Robert Boyle (1627–1691), natural philosopher and chemist
• Henry Godolphin (1648–1733), Provost of Eton, 1695–1707, 1726–1733, and Dean of St Paul's, 1707–1726
• George Stanhope (1660–1728), Dean of Canterbury, 1704–1728
• James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope (1673–1721), Secretary of State for the Southern Department, 1714–1717, 1718–1721, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1717–1718, and soldier
• Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend (1674–1738), Secretary of State for the Northern Department, 1714–1717, 1721–1730
• Anthony Collins (1676–1729), deist
• Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (1676–1745), Secretary at War, 1708–1710, Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1721–1742
• John Weldon (1676–1736), organist and composer
• Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751), Secretary at War, 1704–1708
• Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol (1685–1737), Solicitor General, 1726–1733, and Lord Chancellor, 1733–1737

See also

• List of famous Old Etonians born in the 18th century
• List of famous Old Etonians born in the 19th century
• List of famous Old Etonians born in the 20th century