Unlike the death and cremation of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus at York on the 4th February 211 very little is known about the death of Constantius I Chlorus some 95 years later.
He did, according to the available sources, die a quiet death in his palace at York on 25 July 306. Nothing is said about his funeral or burial other than what is noted by Philostragus that his son *Constantine............ soon after committed his body to the tomb and thus became his successor".
The extant narrative suggests that his death, burial and succession occurred in relatively quick succession, so where was the tomb of Constantius located?
There is one curious tradition that Constantius' tomb was located on Aldwark. There are stories that it was below the church of St. Helen on the Walls and that the tomb was shown to visitors as late as the the 16th century. William Camden (Britannia, 1695) writes that he "had been informed by credible persons, that in the suppression of the monasteries in the last age, there was found a lamp burning in the vault of a little chapel here, and Constantius was thought to be buried there". The name of the church that is referenced by Camden is recorded as being that of St. Helen on the Wall by Drake (Eboracum, 1715).
The church was located adjacent to the Merchant Tailors Hall, outside of the Roman fortress walls, and was demolished around 1549/50. It was rediscovered in 1972 and subjected to archaeological investigation. Although a lot of damage had been done by post mediaeval building Roman occupation levels were identified on the site.
