Papal conclave, 1621

Coat of arms during the vacancy of the Holy See
Dates and location
8–9 February 1621 Apostolic Palace, Papal States
Key officials
Dean	Antonio Maria Sauli
Sub-Dean	Benedetto Giustiniani
Camerlengo	Pietro Aldobrandini
Protopriest	Ottavio Bandini
Protodeacon	Andrea Baroni Peretti Montalto
Election
Candidates	Pietro Campori
Elected Pope
Alessandro Ludovisi (Name taken: Gregory XV)
← May 1605 1623 →

Papal conclave 1621 (February 8 – February 9) – convoked after the death of Pope Paul V, elected Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, who under the name of Gregory XV became 234th Pope of the Catholic Church. It was the shortest conclave in the seventeenth century.

Pope Paul V died on January 28, 1621 in the 16th year of his pontificate. At the time of his death, there were seventy cardinals in the Sacred College, but only sixty nine were valid electors. Fifty one of them participated in the election of the new Pope:

All the electors were Italians, except Zapata and Borja y Velasco, who were Spaniards. Thirty two were creatures of Paul V, fourteen of Pope Clement VIII, four of Sixtus V, and one of Gregory XIII.

Eighteen cardinals did not participate in this conclave:

Cardinal Infante of Spain was not an elector because he was only 12 years old:

There were three main parties in the Sacred College, with cardinal-nephews of the deceased Popes as leaders:

Three cardinals of the Italian ruling families (d'Este, Medici and Sforza) were not counted among the members of these factions.

It was generally thought that the next Pope would be the candidate chosen by Cardinal Borghese, because he was the most influential person in the Sacred College. He wanted to elect his friend Cardinal Campori, and already before opening the conclave he had obtained twenty four declarations in his favor. Although Campori had two significant opponents (Republic of Venice and Cardinal Orsini), Borghese was sure that he would be able to achieve his election on the first day of voting, by acclamation.

Aldobrandini and Montalto, who formally were leaders of factions, were not able to play any significant role during conclave. Aldobrandini was gravely ill at that time and died a day after the election of new Pope. In these circumstances the actual leadership of anti-Borghesian cardinals fell to Alessandro Orsini, who was the main opponent of candidature of Campori.