The
French Senate is the Upper House of the French Parliament. It is presided over by a President. Although there had been Senates in both the
First and
Second Empires, these had not technically been legislative bodies, but rather advisory bodies on the model of the
Roman Senate. France's first experience with an upper house was under the
Directory from 1795 to 1799, when the
Council of Ancients was the upper chamber. With the
Restoration in 1814, a new
Chamber of Peers was created, on the model of the British
House of Lords. At first it contained hereditary peers, but following the
July Revolution of 1830, it became a body to which one was appointed for life. The
Second Republic returned to a unicameral system after 1848, but soon after the establishment of the
Second French Empire in 1852, a Senate was established as the upper chamber. In the
Fourth Republic, the Senate was renamed the Council of the Republic, but its function was largely the same. With the new constitution of the
Fifth Republic in 1959, the older name of Senate was restored.