Chambre des représentants de France

The Chambre des représentants (eng: Chamber of Representatives) was the popularly-elected lower body of the French Parliament set up under the Charter of 1815. The body had 629 members who were to serve five-year terms.^[1] The upper body was the Chambre des pairs.

Jean Denis, comte Lanjuinais served as president of this body while it existed.

The Chambre des représentants was short-lived. At the end of the Hundred Days, with the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, the Chambre issued Napoleon a demand for abdication as Emperor of the French.^[2] On 22 June 1815 the Chambre des représentants elected three members (Carnot, the duc d'Otrante, and the comte Grenier) of a five-member commission, the Commission de gouvernement, to constitute a new government, and on 23 June 1815 the Chambre des représentants named Napoleon II as Emperor.^[2]

The allied powers of the Seventh Coalition soon occupied Paris, and the Chambre des représentants capitulated on 3 July. It soon became clear that the occupiers wished to again restore the Bourbon monarchy. On 8 July 1815, the Chambre des représentants was kept from meeting by armed force, effectively ending it.^[2]

With the restoration of the Bourbons, the Chamber of Deputies was returned as the lower body of Parliament. The reactionary Ultra-royalist delegation that was seated in October 1815 was nicknamed the Chambre introuvable.

References

1. ^ The Act Additional April 22, 1815
2. ^ ^{a b c} France: Commission of Government: 1815