ROYALTY WHIPT AND MARRIED BY PROXY
Few of the old Court customs practised in past years were more curious
than that of “whipping by proxy.” It appears that the office of
whipping-boy doomed its unfortunate occupant to undergo all the corporal
punishment which the heir-apparent to the throne--whose proper person
was, as the Lord’s anointed, considered sacred--might chance to incur
“in the course of travelling through his grammar and prosody.”
One of the most celebrated instances of the observance of this custom
was the appointment of Barnaby Fitzpatrick as King Edward VI.’s
whipping-boy, to which we find numerous allusions. Thus, Burnet[126]
says, “This Fitzpatrick did afterwards fully answer the opinion this
young king had of him. He was bred up with him in learning; and, as it
is said, had been his whipping-boy who, according to the rule of
educating our princes, was always to be whipped for the King’s faults.
He was afterwards made by Queen Elizabeth, Baron of Upper Ossory in
Ireland, which was his native country.”
Strype[127] makes several allusions to Barnaby Fitzpatrick, and relates
how he was “much favoured by King Edward VI., having been bred up with
him from a child. Him the King sent into the French king’s Court,
furnished him with instructions under his own hand for his behaviour
there, appointed him four servants, gave him three hundred French crowns
in his purse, and a letter to the French king in his favour, declaring
that the King had sent him thither to remain in his Court to learn
fashions, for the better serving him at his return.”
Burnet,[128] further speaking of Elizabeth Dysart, who afterwards became
Duchess of Lauderdale, tells us that her father, William Murray, had
been page and whipping-boy to Charles I. But, as it has been pointed
out, we hear nothing of such an office being held by any one in the
household of Prince Henry, the elder brother of Charles I.
It appears, too, that it was customary to have such a substitute in
France, for Fuller says that D’Ossat and Du Perron, afterwards
cardinals, were whipped by Clement VIII. for Henry IV. of France. Louis
XIV., however, on one occasion when he was conscious of his want of
education, exclaimed, “Est ce qu’il n’y avait point de verges dans mon
royaume, pour me forcer à étudier?”--a remark which seems to show that
such a practice was not always observed in France.
It may be remembered how Sir Walter Scott,[129] on introducing Sir Mungo
Malagrowther, of Girnigo Castle, to his readers, gives a graphic account
of this custom. After narrating how he had been early attached to Court
in the capacity of whipping-boy to King James VI., and trained to polite
learning with his Majesty, by his celebrated preceptor, George Buchanan,
he adds: “Under his stern rule--for he did not approve of the vicarious
mode of punishment--James bore the penance of his own faults, and Mungo
Malagrowther enjoyed a sinecure. But James’s other pedagogue, Master
Patrick Young, went more ceremoniously to work, and appalled the very
soul of the youthful king by the floggings which he bestowed on the
whipping-boy when the royal task was not suitably performed. And be it
told to Sir Mungo’s praise that there were points about him in the
highest respect suited to his official situation. He had, even in youth,
a naturally irregular and grotesque set of features which, when
distorted by fear, pain, and anger, looked like one of the whimsical
faces which present themselves in Gothic architecture. His voice was
also high-pitched and querulous, so that when smarting under Master
Peter Young’s unsparing inflictions, the expression of his grotesque
physiognomy, and the superhuman yells which he uttered, were well suited
to produce all the effects on the monarch who deserved the lash, that
could possibly be produced by seeing another and an innocent individual
suffering for his derelict.”
We can easily understand that such a custom would afford our old
dramatists abundant opportunity for enlivening their audience by the
witty introduction of it, as they generally contrived to gain
popularity for their performances by upholding or ridiculing any foolish
usage of the time. In an old play, entitled “When You See Me, You Know
Me,” the custom is thus noticed:--
“_Prince_ (_Edward VI._). Why, how now, Browne! What’s the matter?
“_Browne._ Your grace loiters, and will not ply your book, and your
tutors have whipped me for it.
“_Prince._ Alas, poor Ned! I am sorry for it; I’ll take the more pains,
and entreat my tutors for thee. Yet, in troth, the lectures they read me
last night out of Virgil and Ovid I am perfect in, only I confess I am
behind in my Greek authors.
“_Will_ (_Summers_). And for that speech they have declined it upon his
breech.”
The custom was perhaps practised in Spain for the improvement of Philip
III. Le Sage has introduced such a mode of correction in his _Gil Blas_,
with the following amusing anecdote. He tells us how Don Raphael was,
when twelve years of age, selected by the Marquis de Leganez to be the
companion of his son of the same age, who hardly knew a letter of his
alphabet. In spite of the patient endeavour of his masters to induce him
to apply himself to his studies, he persisted in frittering away his
time, till at last the head-master resolved to give _le fouet_ to young
Raphael whenever the little Leganez deserved it. This, however, he did
so unsparingly that the boy Raphael made up his mind to run away from
the roof of the Marquis de Leganez; and to revenge for all the cruel and
unjust treatment which he had received, he took with him 150 ducats of
the master.
Once more, in the _Pekin Gazette_ for 1876, we find the appointment of,
among other instructors to the young Emperor, a _hahachutcz_, or
“whipping-boy,” who by reason of his office suffers in his person for
all the sins and shortcomings of his imperial fellow-student.
There were exceptions, however, to this rule, for when Dr. Markham
inquired of George III. “how his Majesty would wish to have the princes
treated,” he replied, “Like the sons of any private English gentleman.
If they deserve it, _let them_ be flogged. Do as you used to do at
Westminster.”
Among instances of marriage by proxy may be mentioned that of Joanna of
Navarre with Henry IV., April 3, 1402, Antoine Riczi acting as proxy of
the bride. The act was performed with great solemnity in the presence of
the Archbishop of Canterbury, the King’s half-brothers, the Beaufort
princes, the Earl of Worcester, Lord Chamberlain of England, and other
officers of State, and pronounced in these words:--“I, Antoine Riczi, in
the name of my worshipful lady, Joanna, the daughter of Charles, lately
King of Navarre, Duchess of Bretagne, and Countess of Richmond, take
you, Henry of Lancaster, King of England, and Lord of Ireland, to be my
husband, and thereto I, Antoine, in the spirit of my said lady, plight
you my troth.”
Suffolk espoused the Lady Margaret of Anjou as the proxy of Henry VI.;
and King James I. and the Princess Anne were married by proxy at
Cronenburg. In 1673 the marriage of Mary Beatrice of Modena with the
Duke of York was solemnised by proxy. In 1791 Lord Malmesbury married a
princess of Prussia as proxy for the Duke of York.
And the same practice prevailed from an early period on the Continent.
Thus when Clovis was married to the Princess Clotilde, he offered by his
proxy a sou and a denier, which became by law the usual marriage
offering in France.
The Archduke Maximilian married Anne, Duchess of Bretagne, by proxy; and
he consummated the union by his ambassador attending with a train of
lords and ladies, baring his leg to the knee, and putting it into the
bed of the Duchess, thereby taking possession of her bed and body. The
marriage, however, was annulled, and she afterwards in 1491 became the
wife of Charles VIII. of France. It may be added that Henry II. of
France was killed in a tournament in 1559, in honour of the nuptials of
Philip II. to the Princess Elizabeth of France. It appears that the Duke
of Alva, as proxy for Philip, had espoused Elizabeth on the 20th of
June. The nuptials of the Duke of Savoy with Margaret were to follow. On
the 27th, 28th, and 29th the lists were opened in the Rue St. Antoine.
The King, the Dukes of Guise and Nemours, were the holders, and had
shown their usual prowess and address. The tournament, writes
Crowe,[130] was at an end, when Henry declared he must break another
lance, and ordered Montgomery, one of the captains of the guard, to
tilt with him. The latter declined, but the King forced him. Both lances
were duly broken in the shock, but, as the horses and riders passed on
in their headlong career, the King was struck by the broken end of the
lance which Montgomery, against rules, retained in his hand. On reaching
the end of the course the monarch fell; a splinter had penetrated his
eye, and the King, on being conveyed to the palace, only lingered for
eleven days, expiring on the 10th of July 1559.
Marie Louise in her engagement to Charles II. of Spain looked upon
herself as a victim of State policy, and appealed in vain to Louis XIV.
She had seen the portrait of her future husband, whose character and
imbecility were as well known at Fontainebleau as at Madrid. But her
protestations were in vain. After a marriage by proxy at Fontainebleau,
the Comte d’Harcourt was commissioned to conduct her to the frontier,
where in the famous Isle of Pheasants, on the Bidassoa, the sad-hearted
bride was delivered over to the tender mercies of the Duchess of di
Terra Nueva and the Marquis de Astorgas.