The 1721 papal conclave, convoked after the death of Pope Clement XI, elected Cardinal Michelangelo de' Conti, who took the name of Innocent XIII.

The Clementine party formed the third faction; Annibale Albani, Cardinal-nephew of Clement XI, was leader of the group of cardinals created by his uncle.

Annibale Albani officially supported the candidate of Austria, but actually wanted to elect Fabrizio Paolucci, secretary of state of his uncle.

[2] At the time of death of Pope Clement XI two cardinals, Giulio Alberoni and Louis Antoine de Noailles, were excommunicated.

[3][4] Two last cardinals, Thomas Philip Wallrad de Hénin-Liétard d'Alsace and Damian Hugo Philipp von Schönborn, arrived only on 7 May.

But at that time Cardinal Althan (the only Crown-Cardinal present in the early ballots) in the name of Emperor Charles VI pronounced the official exclusion against Paolucci.

The collapse of Pignatelli was decisive: the Imperial faction, admitting the impossibility of electing his candidate, agreed to vote for Conti.

[10] On 8 May in the morning, in the seventy-fifth ballot, Cardinal Michelangelo de' Conti was elected pope, receiving fifty-four votes out of fifty-five.

A bit later Protodeacon Benedetto Pamphili announced his election to the people of Rome with the ancient formula Habemus Papam,[12] and on 18 May he solemnly crowned him on the steps of the patriarchal Vatican Basilica.