The papal conclave lasting from 14 December 1830 to 2 February 1831 resulted in the election of Cardinal Bartolomeo Cappellari, who took the name Gregory XVI, to succeed Pius VIII as pope.

Initially the chief candidates included Emmanuele De Gregorio and Bartolomeo Pacca, who had been papabili in the 1829 conclave, plus Giacomo Giustiniani, who was a long-serving papal diplomat but who was vetoed by King Ferdinand VII.

Giustiniani had served as nuncio at Madrid and provoked the hostility of the Prime Minister in ecclesiastical matters,[3] and Queen Christina regarding the succession.

However, it became clear eventually that neither of the unvetoed papabili could gain the support of two-thirds of the cardinals, and with Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich wanting a very strong Pope to hold firm against the flood of revolution haunting Europe at the time of the conclave, Giuseppe Albani, who led the Austrian faction and supported Pacca,[1] intervened.

Cappellari, then a Camaldolese priest and prefect of the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, was also the last Pope not a bishop when elected.