Being a whipping boy must go down as one of the worst child jobs in history – taking a beating on behalf of a misbehaving but ‘untouchable’ young monarch.
Studying the Whipping Boy Concept: Truth or Myth?
The history of the whipping boys - although generally accepted as true - is largely clouded in mystery as scholars were unable to prove it for a very long time. The story of a whipping boy is certainly a story of injustice and mistreatment, and a great insight into the skewed social hierarchy of the early and late medieval period.
At the time, young boys from the upper echelons, be they kings, heirs, princes, highborn nobles, or monarchs of any type, often had whipping boys by their side. These children would be educated alongside the noble student and be on hand to take a beating when required. High ranking children of the era could in no way receive this kind of punishment, as their tutor or teacher almost always lower in social status, and couldn’t lay their hands on these privileged students. Instead, the tutor would beat, or whip, the whipping boy.