The Prisoner of Zenda

The Prisoner of Zenda is an adventure novel by Anthony Hope. The king of the fictional country of Ruritania is abducted on the eve of his coronation, and the protagonist, an English gentleman on holiday who fortuitously resembles the monarch, is persuaded to act as his political decoy in an attempt to save the situation

Many fictional works that feature a political decoy can be linked to The Prisoner of Zenda.