The English College (College des Grands Anglais) was a Catholic seminary in Douai, France (also previously spelled Douay, and in English Doway), associated with the University of Douai. It was established in 1568, and was suppressed in 1793. It is known for a Bible translation referred to as the Douay–Rheims Bible. Of over 300 priests from Douai sent on the English mission, about one-third were executed. The dissolution of the college at the time of the French Revolution led to the founding of Crook Hall near Lanchester in County Durham (which became St. Cuthbert's College), and St Edmund's College, Ware. It is popularly believed that the indemnification funds paid by the French for the seizure of Douai's property were diverted by the British commissioners to complete the furnishings of George IV's Royal Pavilion at Brighton. History University of Douai As part of a general programme of consolidation of the Spanish Low Countries, in 1560–1562, Philip II of Spain established a university in Douai that was in some sense a sister-university to that founded at Louvain in 1426. The University of Douai has emerged in recent studies as an important institution of its time. Of an avowedly Catholic character, it had five faculties: theology, canon and civil law, medicine, and arts. In the early years there was a strong English influence, with several of the chief posts being held by professors who had fled the University of Oxford after the accession of Protestants in England. It was there, too, that after taking his licentiate in 1560, William Allen from Lancashire became Regius Professor of Divinity. An English college The foundation of this university coincided with the presence of a large number of English Catholics living at Douai, in the wake of the accession of Elizabeth I and the restoration of Protestantism in England. These included the university's first chancellor, Richard Smith, who had studied at Oxford and thus had already brought the new university under Oxford influences. It was William Allen who first had the idea for a seminary for English Catholic priests, with studies linked to those of the university. He had the idea in a conversation with Dr. Jean Vendeville, then Regius Professor of Canon Law in the University of Douai and later Bishop of Tournai (Allen and Vendeville went on a pilgrimage to Rome together in autumn 1567). The foundation began to take definite shape when Allen leased