Whipping boy

A whipping boy was a child brought up with a prince or young king, and when the young royal was naughty, the whipping boy would be forced to take the punishment for him. Royals were protected by “divine rights” or “God’s mandate,” which said that monarchs were pre-destined and chosen by God to be king so laying hands on a royal was an extreme offense. By bringing the whipping boy and the royal up together as friends, the idea was that seeing the whipping boy in pain would be a deterrent for his royal counterpart.