[1] Among its most politically influential members were Anton Frederik Tscherning, Jens Andersen Hansen and Carl Christian Alberti.
The society gained significant influence in the elections for the constitutional assembly in 1848, as the peasants were the only reasonably organized section of the population.
[2] Bondevennerne were the strongest advocates of giving suffrage to all landowning men, and they would have preferred a unicameral system.
[3] However, the conservatives and in part the National Liberals insisted on a bicameral system with suffrage to the Landsting restricted by income and with some of the members appointed by the king.
The number of members peaked in the middle of the 1850s at approximately 10,000,[4] but due to internal conflicts and splits the influence of the society gradually dropped.