<P> A whipping boy was, supposedly, a boy educated alongside a prince (or boy king) in the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland in the early modern period, who received corporal punishment for the prince's transgressions in his presence . The prince was not punished himself because his royal status exceeded that of his tutor; seeing a friend punished would provide an equivalent motivation not to repeat the offence . Whipping was a common punishment of tutors at that time . There is little contemporary evidence for the existence of whipping boys, and evidence that many princes were indeed whipped by their tutors . Some historians regard whipping boys as entirely mythical; others suggest they applied only in the case of a boy king, protected by divine right, and not to mere princes . </P> <P> The whipping boys were sometimes educated with and given similar privileges to the prince . Whipping boy was an established title at court during the Tudor reign . The whipping boys were often rewarded later in life by the princes they served . King Charles I of England appointed his whipping boy, William Murray, as the first Earl of Dysart in 1643 after he had been living in the palatial Ham House since 1626 under the request of King Charles I. Barnaby Fitzpatrick, who was sent to court as a hostage by his father the 1st Baron Ossory, was educated with the future Edward VI and has been described as his whipping boy, although John Guy calls this a myth, since their tutor Richard Cox wrote of beating Edward with his staff . </P>

Where did the term whipping boy come from
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