The council was called by King Aldfrith of Northumbria to discuss whether Wilfrid should be returned to the see of York from which he had been expelled in 686.
Wilfrid had appealed to the papacy around 700, and Pope Sergius I had sent the matter back to Britain to be decided locally.
[3] The council was called at a place described as in campo qui Eostrefeld dicitur and in campo qui dicitur Oustraefelda, which has led to the site of the council being identified with Austerfield near Bawtry in South Yorkshire (formerly in the West Riding of Yorkshire).
[3] One account of the council survives,[1] that of Wilfrid's biographer, Stephen of Ripon in the Vita Sancti Wilfrithi.
[10] The decision of the council was that Wilfrid should remain exiled from York and return to the monastery of Ripon and not leave and no longer be a bishop.