Why did Henry VIII have a whipping boy?

A whipping boy was a young boy assigned to a prince, usually around the age of the prince, who was punished in lieu of the prince.

So, when Henry VIII was young he would have had a whipping boy assigned to him and this child was punished whenever Henry misbehaved or fell behind in his schooling.

Whipping boys existed because of the 'devine right of kings' which stated that kings were appointed by God and implied that no one but the king was worthy of punishing the king's son. Kings were often far too busy, therefore tutors found it hard to enforce rules or learning. They were generally of high birth and educated with the prince since birth, forming an emotional bond between the two. The idea of the whipping boys was that seeing a friend being whipped or beaten for something that he had done wrong would be likely to ensure that the prince would not make the same mistake again.