Papal Conclaves
Electoral monarchyNext election · on the death or resignation of the pope · Capital · Rome in the metro rankings →
Almost a millennium of the world's oldest surviving electoral system: every papal election since the cardinals became the electorate in 1059 — the 33-month deadlock that invented the conclave, the schism that produced three rival popes, the crown vetoes and marathon stalemates, and the two-day conclaves of the modern age, through Leo XIV in 2025.
How to read this hub. A conclave is an election with no parties, no campaign and an electorate of around a hundred men choosing an absolute monarch for life — the one contest in this atlas where secrecy is the design rather than the defect. The record here is what the Church itself documents: dates, duration, electors, ballots where known, and the pope produced. Votes cast for individual candidates are burned, so the tables of this hub count days and ballots instead.
Elections recorded
112
1061–2025, of which 76 were conclaves under the locked-door rules
Span
964 yrs
the oldest electoral system still in continuous use
Longest deadlock
33 mo
1268–71 — ended by a removed roof, cut rations and a compromise committee
The latest
2025
Leo XIV, elected on the 4th ballot by 133 electors
Every conclave and papal election
Newest first within each era. The bar under each entry is the length of the gathering — gold for the routine, amber for the deadlocks that ran past a month.
The modern conclaves · 1914–2025
Fast, secret and global. Twentieth-century reforms fixed the two-thirds rule, banned royal vetoes and capped electors at cardinals under eighty; the electorate grew from 57 largely Italian cardinals in 1914 to 133 electors from over 70 countries in 2025. No conclave in this era has needed more than five days.
The long nineteenth century · 1800–1903
Conclaves in the shadow of European power: Pius VII was elected in Venice under Austrian protection while Rome was occupied, Catholic monarchs still wielded a veto — used for the last time against the frontrunner in 1903 — and the 1878 conclave was the first held after the fall of the Papal States.
The early modern conclaves · 1431–1799
The age of crown factions and marathon deadlocks. France, Spain and the Empire ran organised parties inside the Sistine Chapel; conclaves routinely lasted weeks and sometimes months — 1740 ran half a year, and the century's electors invented the compromise candidate as an art form.
Conclave law and the Great Schism · 1276–1417
Gregory X's rules of 1274 — locked doors, dwindling rations — were meant to end years-long vacancies, and mostly did. But Avignon pulled the papacy to France for seven decades, and the disputed election of 1378 split Christendom between two, then three rival popes until the Council of Constance elected Martin V.
The first papal elections · 1061–1271
In nomine Domini (1059) took the choice of pope from emperors and Roman mobs and gave it to the cardinals. The elections that followed were often quick and occasionally chaotic — rival claimants, street fighting, and the 33-month deadlock of 1268–71 that provoked the invention of the conclave itself.
The numbers to know
Longest election ever
2.8 years
1268–1271 — Gregory X emerged only after Viterbo removed the roof and cut the cardinals' rations
Shortest conclave
~10 hours
October 1503 — Julius II was elected almost before the doors closed
Most recorded ballots
83
1830–1831 — Gregory XVI emerged after 51 days of voting
Largest electorate
133
2025 — cardinal electors from more than 70 countries chose Leo XIV
Last non-cardinal elected
1378
Bartolomeo Prignano, Archbishop of Bari, became Urban VI — every pope since has been a cardinal, and his disputed election split the Church for 39 years
The council's pope
1417
Martin V, elected at Constance by cardinals plus deputies of the conciliar nations — the vote that ended the Western Schism
Popes produced
112
recorded contests from 1061 to Leo XIV in 2025, plus the pre-1059 selections described below
The latest conclave
2025
Leo XIV (Robert Francis Prevost), elected on the 4th ballot by 133 electors
How a conclave works
The electorate
Cardinals under the age of eighty — 133 of them in 2025, appointed by previous popes and drawn from over seventy countries. Before 1059 popes were chosen by Roman clergy, mobs and emperors; In nomine Domini gave the choice to the cardinals, and Ubi periculum (1274) locked them in until they decided.
The rules
Two-thirds of the votes present, by secret written ballot in the Sistine Chapel, up to four ballots a day. Black smoke means no decision; white smoke, with the bells of St Peter's, means a pope. The elected man need not be a cardinal — though every one since 1378 has been.
The pressure of the lock
The word conclave means 'with a key'. The rules exist because medieval elections ran for years: Viterbo's magistrates removed the roof over the cardinals in 1270 and cut their food to bread and water. Modern conclaves feel the same pressure politely — none since 1831 has lasted a week.
Why it belongs in this atlas
It is the oldest continuously operating electoral system on earth, and the purest counter-example: a real election with no electorate to persuade beyond the room itself. Its history — vetoes by kings, factions of crowns, schisms with three simultaneous winners — is electoral politics distilled.