was unanimously elected Pope on 2 April, on the first ballot, and took the name of Honorius IV. He remained at Perugia throughout April, but, once negotiations were completed, he travelled to Rome and took up residence in the family palace next to Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill. He was ordained a priest by Cardinal Latino Malabranca Orsini on May 19, and was consecrated a bishop and crowned pope on Trinity Sunday, 20 May in St. Peter's Basilica. Honorius IV was already advanced in age and so severely affected with gout (or arthritis) that he could neither stand nor walk. When saying Mass he was obliged to sit in a specially constructed chair, and at the elevation of the host his hands had to be raised by a mechanical contrivance. Sicilian Conflict Sicilian affairs required immediate attention from the new pope. Previously, under Martin IV, the Sicilians had rejected the rule of Charles of Anjou, taking Peter III of Aragon as their king without the consent and approval of the Pope. The massacre of 31 March 1282 known as the Sicilian Vespers had precluded any reconciliation. Martin IV put Sicily and Peter III under an interdict, deprived Peter III of the Crown of Aragon, and gave it to Charles of Valois, the younger of the sons of King Philip III of France, whom he assisted in his attempts to recover Sicily by force of arms. The Sicilians not only repulsed the attacks of the combined French and Papal forces, but also captured the Angevin heir, Charles of Salerno. On 6 January 1285, Charles of Anjou died, leaving his captive son Charles as his natural successor. Honorius IV, more peaceably inclined than Martin IV, did not renounce the Church's support of the House of Anjou, nor did he set aside the severe ecclesiastical punishments imposed upon Sicily. Honorius did not approve of the tyrannical government the Sicilians had been subject to under Charles of Anjou. This is evident from legislation embodied in his constitution of 17 September 1285 (Constitutio super ordinatione regni Siciliae), in which he stated that no government can prosper that is not founded on justice and peace. He passed forty-five ordinances intended chiefly to protect the people of Sicily against their king and his officials. The death of Peter III on 11 November 1285 changed the Sicilian situation in that his kingdoms were divided between his two