The
Corps législatif was a part of the French legislature during the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
and beyond. It is also the generic French term used to refer to any legislative body.
The
Constitution of the Year IThe Constitution of 24 June 1793 , also known as the The Montagnard Constitution , was the constitution which instated the First Republic during the French Revolution. Following a referendum, it was ratified by the National Convention on June 24, 1793...
foresaw the need for a corps législatif. During the period of the
French DirectoryThe Executive Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...
, beginning in 1795, the
Corps législatif referred to the bicameral legislature of the
Conseil des Cinq-Cents (
Council of Five HundredThe Council of Five Hundred , or simply the Five Hundred was the lower house of the legislature of France during the period commonly known as the Directory , from August 22, 1795 until November 9, 1799, roughly the second half of the period generally referred to as the...
) and the
Conseil des Anciens (
Council of AncientsThe Council of Ancients or Council of Elders was the upper house of the Directory , the legislature of France from August 22, 1795 until November 9, 1799, roughly the second half of the period generally referred to as the French Revolution. The Council of Ancients was the senior of the two halves...
).
Later, under
Napoleon'sNapoleon Bonaparte later known as Napoleon I, and previously Napoleone di Buonaparte, was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.Born in Corsica and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France, Bonaparte rose to prominence...
ConsulateThe Consulate was the government of France between the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire in 1804...
, the
Constitution of the Year VIIIThe Constitution of the Year VIII was a national constitution of France, adopted December 24 1799 , which established the form of government known as the Consulate...
(1800) set up a
Corps législatif as the law-making body of the three-part government apparatus (alongside the
tribunatThe Tribunat was one of the four assemblies set up in France by the Constitution of Year VIII . It was set up officially on 1 January 1800 at the same time as the...
and the
sénat conservateurThe Sénat conservateur was a body set up in France during the Consulate by the Constitution of the Year VIII. With the Tribunat and the Corps législatif, it formed one of the three legislative assemblies of the Consulate...
).
The
Corps législatif was a part of the French legislature during the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
and beyond. It is also the generic French term used to refer to any legislative body.
History
The
Constitution of the Year IThe Constitution of 24 June 1793 , also known as the The Montagnard Constitution , was the constitution which instated the First Republic during the French Revolution. Following a referendum, it was ratified by the National Convention on June 24, 1793...
foresaw the need for a corps législatif. During the period of the
French DirectoryThe Executive Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...
, beginning in 1795, the
Corps législatif referred to the bicameral legislature of the
Conseil des Cinq-Cents (
Council of Five HundredThe Council of Five Hundred , or simply the Five Hundred was the lower house of the legislature of France during the period commonly known as the Directory , from August 22, 1795 until November 9, 1799, roughly the second half of the period generally referred to as the...
) and the
Conseil des Anciens (
Council of AncientsThe Council of Ancients or Council of Elders was the upper house of the Directory , the legislature of France from August 22, 1795 until November 9, 1799, roughly the second half of the period generally referred to as the French Revolution. The Council of Ancients was the senior of the two halves...
).
Later, under
Napoleon'sNapoleon Bonaparte later known as Napoleon I, and previously Napoleone di Buonaparte, was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.Born in Corsica and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France, Bonaparte rose to prominence...
ConsulateThe Consulate was the government of France between the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire in 1804...
, the
Constitution of the Year VIIIThe Constitution of the Year VIII was a national constitution of France, adopted December 24 1799 , which established the form of government known as the Consulate...
(1800) set up a
Corps législatif as the law-making body of the three-part government apparatus (alongside the
tribunatThe Tribunat was one of the four assemblies set up in France by the Constitution of Year VIII . It was set up officially on 1 January 1800 at the same time as the...
and the
sénat conservateurThe Sénat conservateur was a body set up in France during the Consulate by the Constitution of the Year VIII. With the Tribunat and the Corps législatif, it formed one of the three legislative assemblies of the Consulate...
). This body replaced the Conseil des Anciens, but its role consisted solely of voting on laws deliberated before the tribunat. The
Constitution of the Year XThe Constitution of the Year X was a national constitution of France adopted during the Year X of the French Revolutionary Calendar. It superseded the Constitution of the Year VIII, revising the Consulate to augment Napoleon Bonaparte's authority by making him First Consul for Life.It was...
continued the corps' existence, but Napoleon grew more impatient with its slow deliberations and stripped it of much of its power in 1804. It was finally abolished by
Louis XVIIILouis XVIII , Louis Stanislas Xavier de France, was King of France and Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815. Louis XVIII spent twenty-three years in exile, from 1791 to 1814, due to the French Revolution, and was exiled again in 1815, upon the return of Napoleon Bonaparte...
on 4 June 1814, to be replaced by the Chambre des députés (though a Chambre des représentants was briefly set up during the
Hundred DaysThe Hundred Days, sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon or Napoleon's Hundred Days for specificity, marked the period between Napoleon Bonaparte's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815...
).
When
Napoleon IIINapoleon III , Charles-Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, was the first President of the French Republic and the last monarch of France. He was also Napoleon I's nephew. Made president by popular vote in 1848, Napoleon III ascended to the throne on 2 December 1852, the forty-eighth anniversary of Napoleon...
gained power, he re-constituted the Corps as France's lower chamber through the
Constitution of 1852The French Constitution of 1852 was enacted on January 14, 1852 by Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte . Slightly modified later that year, on December 25, 1852 the constitution became the basis for the creation of the French Second Empire....
, with members elected by direct universal suffrage for terms of 6 years. The elections occurred in February 1852, June 1857, 31 May 1863 and May 1869. Faced with an omnipotent executive - ministers appointed by Napoleon III were only dependent on him - the elected corps législatif of the Second Empire shared its reduced legislative powers with the executive Conseil d'État, made up of functionaries, and the
SénatSenat may refer to:* Senate, a deliberative body* Senet, ancient Egypt board game* Senate of the Republic of Poland, the upper house of the Polish parliament...
, whose members were named for life.
The name was finally changed to
Chamber of DeputiesChamber of Deputies was the name given to several parliamentary bodies in France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries:* 1814–1848 during the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy, the Chamber of Deputies was the Lower chamber of the French Parliament, elected by census suffrage.*...
by the
Third RepublicThe French Third Republic was the republican government of France between the end of the Second French Empire in 1870 and the Vichy Regime after the invasion of France by the German...
.
See also
A
corps législatif also existed in the
Republic of FrankfurtFor almost five centuries, the German city of Frankfurt am Main was a city-state within two major Germanic states:*The Holy Roman Empire as the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt...
.