How were kings not “hacked” in the olden days?

Question

Specifically, I’m talking about their signet rings, seals, etc.
Couldn’t someone just make a copy? Or make one that looks extremely similar?
Imagine “hacking” the king. You could start wars or do whatever you wanted just by getting a letter sent somewhere.
I understand it’s not as easy as it sounds and one would have to first obtain said seal or wax imprint from a letter or something but I’m surprised I’ve never heard of it being done.

EDIT: Anyone else now wanna see a movie get made about someone (or some team) pulling off a ‘heist’ like this?? Obviously set back in the olden days.

In: 2491

Answer 1

Copying a seal would be a lot more difficult than you seem to think it would be. They were intricately designed to make it so that they couldn’t be easily “hacked” as you say. And starting a war would be a lot harder than just sending a letter with a fake seal. Maybe you could get one regiment to move somewhere new, but they couldn’t start a war. The king sending letters isn’t how they started wars. The king would tell his general(s) he wanted to go to war, and the general would talk to all of his colonels, and only then would letters be sent as the colonels would need to notify their majors, and the majors their captains, etc. So it a general got a letter from the king, he would simply ask the king “wtf is this?” in person. Not to mention he would likely know the kings handwriting. A colonel receiving the letter and wonder why tf the king is sending him anything and go ask his general. A major the same thing. Perhaps one stupid major or sergeant would be stupid enough to fall for it, but like I said, they wouldn’t start a war, they would just move to a new position at most and send letters to their superiors for more details.

Faking a signet ring would also do less than nothing. A king didn’t go around by himself, he would have a group of like a hundred traveling with him. So literally no one would be stupid enough to think one person with a signet ring was a king just because he had it. More likely they would think that guy stole it from someone.