I addressed an aspect of this in an earlier posting on the history of
the usage of "demand", noting that "of" in this usage preserves it OE
and ME meaning of "from" and that "from" is a more recent innovation.

Herb

Dear All,

(a) Concerning the verb 'demand' it has not been mentioned that a
construction with the preposition 'of' is common to express the person
from
whom a response is demanded (with a subjunctive where a clause follows):

He demanded of the general that they be released.
To demand of them their unconditional surrender was the only
possibility.

(b) For the noun 'demand' there is the construction with the
prepositions
'on' and  'upon' that introduces the person or thing suffering the
demand:

They made such demands upon him that his funds ran out.
The engine stood up well to the demands on it.

(c) After the noun, 'for' introduces what it is that is demanded:

His demand for an explanation was embarrassing to the authorities.

(d) After the noun, 'from' indicates the person or thing responsible for
the
demand:

The demands from the town were reasonable in the circumstances.

Edmond Wright

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