Ahhhh, thank you, all of that makes a lot more sense! (I found a libretto in Italian online but my Italian is not really good enough to figure out what's going on, even with google translate to help.) Yeah, I guess maybe Verdi's audience would have known intimately about all the Guelph/Ghibelline stuff, but I don't :)

Oh, right, I did see that about Amelia and didn't even think about how Simon would have possibly known that! Hee.

Yes, I thought it was kind of unbelievable that Simon managed to fight a whole battle while dying of poison! Though Hampson played Simon as clearly feeling (physically) awful by the end of the battle -- he really looked like he was about to collapse.