 However, his family suffered for this act, as Æthelred had his son Ælfgar blinded the year after (993).Ælfric was at some point reconciled with Æthelred, since the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has him fighting for the English in 1016, but in 1003 he supposedly pretended to be sick in order to avoid leading an army from Wiltshire and Hampshire against Sweyn Forkbeard, who was allowed to pillage Wilton.Ælfric died in the Battle of Assandun on 18 October 1016 fighting for Edmund Ironside.