Ælfhelm's powerful and wealthy family came from Mercia, a territory and former kingdom incorporating most of central England, and he achieved his position despite being an outsider.
Most of Ælfhelm's subsequent historical appearances record him as a witness to charters, although one notable exception is the will of his brother, Wulfric Spot.
[6] He was thought by historian Simon Keynes to have been the same as Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE) "Ælfhelm 15", who witnesses charters as minister, i.e. thegn, from 982 to 990.
Ælfhelm's apparent promotion in 994 is thought by some historians, for instance Richard Fletcher, to have been due to the Scandinavian attack on Northumbria in 993.
Then a very large English army was collected, and when they should have joined battle, the leaders Fræna, Godwine and Frythegyst, first started the flight.
When all were busy with the hunt, one Godwine Porthund (which means the town dog) a Shrewsbury butcher, whom Eadric had dazzled long before with great gifts and many promises so that he might perpetrate the crime, suddenly leapt out from the ambush, and execrably slew the ealdorman Ælfhelm.
[19] Kapelle thought Ælfhelm's murder, conducted without King Æthelred's displeasure, was the result of suspect loyalty in the face of Scandinavian invasions.
[20] The sources appear to indicate that Ælfhelm's successor was Uhtred of Bamburgh, the first magnate in decades to govern northern and southern Northumbria together.
[21] The text known as De obsessione Dunelmi ("On the siege of Durham"), relates that Uhtred took power after defeating a Scottish invasion.