In 1766 Charles Christian, Prince of Nassau-Weilburg, brother in law of stadtholder William V, ordered the construction of a little city palace at the Korte Voorhout for his 23 year old wife Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau and himself.

[3] He gave the assignment to Pieter de Swart, who studied for two years in Paris, paid for by stadtholder William IV.

[5][6] De Swart was also responsible for several other prominent buildings in The Hague, such as the former Royal Library, the Lange Voorhout Palace and the Lutheran church.

[6] De Swart drafted a design in neo-Louis XIV style[note 1] for a 77 meter wide and three stories high building around a semicircular cour d'honneur.

At the garden side of the building, a music hall, ballroom and party room would be located, with five goblins on the walls.

It remained empty and unfinished for a long time, and it was decided to tear it down, just before a group of citizens from The Hague rented it for 99 years to turn it into a theater.

This was also when the letters 'SPQH' were added to the front of the building, referring to the phrase Senatus Populusque Hagensis (Government and People of The Hague).

Because Verkade mostly brought progressive theater and didn't succeed in warming up the audience to the same, his company was replaced in 1924 by the Vereenigd Rotterdamsch-Hofstad Tooneel of Cor van der Lugt Melsert.

In 1929 the backside of the building was extensively renovated, a stage tower was installed to make it possible to hoist up decors and the dressing rooms were modernized.

[9][3] The municipality of The Hague, the owner, paid 31 million guilders to make the necessary changes designed by Vandenhove.

On 18 September 1999 the Koninklijke Schouwburg was reopened by the alderman Louise Engering, followed by the premiere of "Oude Mensen" by the Nationale Toneel (directed by Ger Thijs).