Why the Netherlands is governed from The Hague

A capital in one sentence

The Dutch Constitution names the capital only once, in passing. Article 32 says that on taking the throne the King shall be sworn in and inaugurated “in the capital city, Amsterdam, at a public and joint session of the two Chambers of the Parliament.”^[1]

That is exactly what happened when Willem-Alexander became King: he was sworn in on 30 April 2013 at a joint session of both houses of parliament in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam.^[6] For the rest of the year, parliament sits in The Hague.^[2]

Run from The Hague since the Republic

The Binnenhof in The Hague began in the 13th century as the court of the counts of Holland, and over the centuries it housed counts, stadtholders and even Louis Napoleon.^[2][7] As the province of Holland’s influence grew in the Dutch Republic, the meetings of the States General, the Republic’s assembly, took place there more and more often, and from 1593 it met every day.^[7][3]

Amsterdam was the Republic’s economic and financial centre, but its day-to-day government and its most important meetings happened in The Hague, where the stadtholder also lived and worked.^[3]

Amsterdam’s palace

Amsterdam’s grand building on Dam Square was built from 1648 as its city hall. In 1808 Louis Napoleon, Napoleon’s brother and King of Holland, took it as his royal palace. After Napoleon fell in 1813, the future King Willem I gave it back to the city, and the state bought it in 1936.^[5]

Today it is used for state visits and official receptions, and it is where Queen Wilhelmina in 1948, Queen Juliana in 1980 and Queen Beatrix in 2013 signed their abdications.^[5]

The Hague today

Before its current renovation, the Binnenhof was where the House of Representatives met, where the prime minister worked and where ministers held their weekly meetings.^[2] Once a year, on Prinsjesdag, the third Tuesday of September, both houses meet together in its Ridderzaal for the state opening of parliament.^[2]

The King works at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague. Foreign ambassadors present their credentials to him there, and the royal procession to the state opening of parliament sets off from it.^[4]

In July 2021 the House of Representatives held its last debate in the Binnenhof before a renovation expected to take at least five and a half years, and moved to a former Foreign Affairs building on the Bezuidenhoutseweg, still in The Hague.^[8]