Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Corps législatif was France's main law-making body, first established by the Constitution of the Year VIII in 1799 under Napoleon's Consulate. Its role was restricted to voting on laws deliberated before the Tribunat; it had no power to deliberate itself. Napoleon later stripped it of further powers in 1804.
Louis XVIII abolished the Corps législatif on the 4th of June 1814, replacing it with the Chambre des députés. A brief substitute, the Chambre des représentants, was set up during the Hundred Days before also disappearing.
Napoleon III reconstituted the Corps législatif as France's lower chamber through the Constitution of 1852, with members elected by direct universal suffrage for six-year terms. Elections were held in February 1852, June 1857, the 31st of May 1863, and May 1869.
The Corps législatif replaced the Council of Five Hundred, which had been the lower house of the French legislature under the Directory period, established by the Constitution of the Year III.
Under the Second Empire, the elected Corps législatif shared legislative powers with the executive Conseil d'État, composed of functionaries, and the Sénat, whose members were named for life.
The Chamber of Deputies replaced the Corps législatif when the Third Republic succeeded the Second Empire.