The idea of a whipping boy (an individual who acted as a surrogate for a prince or young king in enduring punishments in his stead) can be traced through several literary and historical sources, but there is no consensus on whether or not this practice ever occurred. Most sources that mention whipping boys emerge in Western European countries in the early modern period, from roughly the mid-16th to the mid-18th centuries; but again, the practice itself is nebulous and largely grounded in what experts do know of social expectations and standards in a given culture and time.

For many upper-class boys, corporal punishment such as beating or whipping could be implemented by tutors if a pupil misbehaved or proved inattentive. Among wealthy families, the education of children, especially sons, was largely conducted by specialized tutors (not the parents themselves). As a result, tutors would often spend the most time with a family’s children and have to deal with their misbehavior. However, this dynamic created tension within societies that were highly conscious of social rank. While tutors were highly educated, they were typically lower-ranked than the pupils they were employed to teach (evidenced by the fact that tutors had to work for money).