So people just starved or froze to death in the way back when?
Not an expert on the details, but there were poor houses and poor relief run by local parishes.
In fact, good to look into these for when the "Xtians nevuh dit nuthin goot for no one" set, since not only were they the ones giving assistance here, they're the reason that the greatest power to have ever existed on Earth took it upon itself to do the same outside its shores, something no one has done to a large degree probably since the the first Messiah, Cyrus the Great and the Achaemenid Empire, and he did it just for his citizens (including their newly conquered).
Yes, believers and non-believers, Christians have done more than supply crosses to plant on invaded territories