Forgotten History of the 'Royal Scapegoats'

Long gone are the dreaded school days when teachers used to carry meter long flogging machines, often customized for the perfect blow, and the boys coming to class wearing military grade trousers on the days they anticipate a good scourging. Well this was a cherished custom in most Indian schools a few decades ago and most often one can hear the ones who have had first hand experience of this narrating the innumerable benefits of a good old whipping. Many even give long lectures on  how it can help in your character formation. 

They often complain of how the new educational system has ruined our boys. Of course as always it was only the ordinary folks who had to go through this austere form of character formation. So a question that naturally comes to our minds is whether the royals too had to go through such ordeals to reach adulthood? It seems that the answer to this is no, well at least in medieval Brittannia .

British royal heirs with their 'Divine Rights' were definitely not the kind of people to mess with. Just imagine the horrors faced by the royal tutors who obviously would have been caught in a dilemma, relieve the prince from punishment and leave him to the devil or risk your own life by attempting to raise the cane before him. 

Thankfully, it was not left to them to decide upon the matter as the royalty and their well-wishers didn't like the idea of a price receiving a through beating. They took it as an attack on royal infallibility, which of course is grade one treachery. To them it seemed liked an idea that would pop up only in the minds of the most disloyal anarchists! For how can a petty commoner, perhaps even the son of a plebeian peasant, be allowed to discharge his fury on the future ruler of the land?

The treatises "The Education of a Christian Prince" (1516) mentions the inappropriateness of physical chastisement of princes but it doesn't mention any proxy punishment. The concept of a "whipping boy" was suggested as a solution  to this conundrum. 

A whipping boy was a boy who was educated alongside a prince and received corporal punishment for the prince's transgressions, in his presence. It was a classic case of "beat the dog before the lion", the idea being that seeing his friend punished at the merciless hands of the royal tutor would bring about a moral change in the prince. 

It really was tickling two tummies with one finger; the teacher gets his punching bag while the price escapes unscathed. 

The image above is an oil painting by Walter Sydney Stacey depicting a young Edward VI with his whipping boy(of course his name is lost in oblivion!). 

Basically the whipping boys were scapegoats who had to suffer for 'royal atrocities'. The prince could not be punished because his royal status exceeded that of his tutor. The patsy had the immeasurable joy of receiving a light blow in place of his royal comrade, just like a chivalric knight who dares enemy arrows all in the name of the king. 

I'm sure the lad might have cried in ecstasy when each blow landed on him, realizing how magnificent a duty he was entrusted to discharge. He might even have begged for more blows so that the king may even be worthy of canonization in the future. But still the job wouldn't have been as thrilling for many, imagine being the whipping boy of Henry VIII(a moment of silence for the poor stripling). 

But on the other hand there are many historians who suggest that this is just a mythical concept because there are several historical records suggesting that many royal heirs were indeed beaten. Did they run out of boys or did the chamber of ministers suggest the young kings needed a more 'hands-on' experience?(no pun intended). Whatever be the real case this custom would remain in the dark annals of history.