“Literally whipped”: the boys who took the beatings meant for royal bottoms

What was a whipping boy?

A whipping boy was a young boy who accompanied a prince throughout his education and received any necessary punishment. The name ‘whipping boy’ was literal.

Today, the term refers to someone who is scapegoated or constantly blamed for the wrongdoing of others.

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There may have been a hope that the young royal, upon seeing their friend unfairly beaten, would feel enough remorse to correct their behaviour (and, as we all know well, European monarchs during these periods were well regarded for their empathy, so it must have worked a treat).

However, being a whipping boy did come with incentives. They could form a close bond with their royal schoolmate, which might see them rewarded with titles and honours. It may have even been a coveted position, similar to the equally un-glamourous Groom of the Stool – the man who helped the king with his daily ablutions.

How common were whipping boys?

Henry VIII’s son Edward VI was said to have a whipping boy. So too, it is believed, did his illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy, as well as the future Charles I a century later. The 13th-century king of Jerusalem, Conrad II, reportedly had 12, while France’s Louis XV (r1715-74) was apparently partnered with the son of a cobbler at Versailles to take his punishments.

The practice could be seen as far away as China, too. The young Guangxu Emperor began his education in the late-19th century with the assistance of a 'ha'hachutsze. According to a report in the Peking Gazette, “Whenever the Son of Heaven is naughty or inattentive, the 'ha'hachutsze is beaten or disgraced”.

Were whipping boys real?

There is no solid evidence that whipping boys were ever actually used, other than circumstantial or speculative commentary. Historians are divided on whether they existed at all.

The Renaissance humanist Erasmus wrote two treatises in the 16th century on how young royals should not be physically chastised, but without mentioning the whipping boy loophole.

Many of the supposed examples of whipping boys, like those above, are based on nothing more than rumour that became accepted as fact over time.

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The idea, which may have taken root as a means of illustrating just how out of touch or uncaring a maligned monarch of the past could be, was established more through literature than record. Edward VI’s whipping boy may have first appeared in a 1604 play by Samuel Rowley, When You See Me, You Know Me.

Whipping boys then show up with increasing frequency in the 19th century, such as in Sir Walter Scott’s 1822 novel The Fortunes of Nigel, and Mark Twain’s 1881 historical fiction The Prince and the Pauper, both without grounding in fact.