Pope Lucius III was elected on 1 September 1181, but had to be consecrated and enthroned at Velletri, due to the hostility of the Romans.

Annoyed by the challenge, the Roman commune reopened the war, devastated the territory of Tusculum in April 1184, and then turned their wrath against Latium.

There was the matter of lay appointment to bishops, and the issue of the inheritance of Mathilda of Tuscany, which had been willed to S. Peter, but which was in imperial hands and of which the emperor insisted he was the feudal overlord.

[8] On 11 November 1185, two weeks before the pope's death, eighteen cardinals subscribed a bull in favor of the monastery of S. Peter Lobiensis.

[21] In such circumstances, Northern Italian cardinals quickly secured the election of their candidate Uberto Crivelli of Milan.

Crivelli was widely known to have a long-standing rancor against Barbarossa, who had singled out his family and followers when he had conquered Milan, some of whom he ordered to be executed, others to be mutilated.