A "whipping boy" is not merely an expression but actually refers to a position held by, appropriately enough, a boy who was whipped.
The position of "whipping boy" arose around the 15th century in the monarchy in England. Because of the divine nature of royalty, the only person who could physically punish a misbehaving prince during that era was the boy's father. However, kings were often out doing stuff like beheading wives or fighting the French and were thus frequently not available to handle the discipline of their children.
The whipping boy was a child of the same age as the prince who would be whipped in place of the prince by a palace employee. The prince, in theory, would feel guilt and remorse and would not repeat the offense which led to the punishment.
While being a whipping boy for a sociopath prince who did not feel guilt or remorse could be a real buzzkill, most whipping boys actually had it pretty good. They were often the only companion of a similar age a prince had and would be BFF with the prince. In most cases, a prince would in fact feel great remorse over getting his only true friend in trouble.
In short, whipping boys usually had all of the luxury of growing up living like a prince, would often be rewarded with great wealth and estates by the prince when the prince and he achieved adulthood, and would always have the ear of the king once the prince inherited the throne. It generally was worth a few lashes, especially since all boys at that time (except princes) were beaten anyway, regardless of their stations in life.
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