 The synod at Croft held by Wiglaf in 836 , which Beorhtwulf may have attended , was the last such conclave called together by a Mercian king . During Beorhtwulf 's reign and thereafter , the kingdom of Wessex had more influence than Mercia with the Archbishop of Canterbury . A charter of 840 provides evidence of a different kind concerning Beorhtwulf 's relations with the church . The charter concerns lands that had originally been granted by Offa to the monastery of Bredon in Worcestershire . The lands had come under the control of the church in Worcester , but Beorhtwulf had seized the land again . In the charter Beorhtwulf acknowledges the church 's right to the land , but forces a handsome gift from the bishop in return : " four very choice horses and a ring of 30 mancuses and a skilfully wrought dish of three pounds , and two silver horns of four pounds ... [ and ] ... two good horses and two goblets of two pounds and one gilded cup of two pounds . " This is not an isolated case ; there are other charters that show Mercian kings of the time disputing property with the church , such as a charter of 849 in which Beorhtwulf received a lease on land from the bishop of Worcester , and promised in return that he would be " more firmly the friend of the bishop and his community " and , in the words of historian Patrick Wormald , " would not rob them in future " . Wormald suggests that this ruthless behaviour may be explained by the fact that landed estates were becoming harder to find , as so much land had been granted to monasteries . The problem had been mentioned over a century before by Bede , who in a letter to Egbert , the Archbishop of York , had complained of " a complete lack of places where the sons of nobles and of veteran thegns can receive an estate " . Beorhtwulf 's concession of wrongdoing suggests that he could not rely on his nobles to support him in such a disagreement , and may indicate that his hold on the throne was insecure . 
