During the 1673 election, Jabłonowski, being fierce supporter of John Sobieski, greatly contributed to Sobieski's election as king. In 1676 Jabłonowski was nominated as the Field Hetman of the Polish forces and from then on became the protector the south-eastern provinces of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1683 the Sejm (parliament) granted him the Hetman's baton. Previously, however, because in 1681 he was active in political life, he was accused of being part of several intrigues against King John III. For this reason, the king didn't allow the parliament to grant him any titles. In the following years he participated in all the battles on the south-eastern fringe; in 1685 he led the unsuccessful expedition to Bukovina and in 1686 he took part in an expedition to Wallachia. In 1692 he became the castellan of Kraków. In the same year he unsuccessfully besieged Kamieniec Podolski, which has previously fallen into enemy hands. In 1694 he took part in the campaign near the town of Uścieczko where he crushed the allied Tatar and Turkish forces. In 1695 he took part in the great defeat of the last Tatar army at the Battle of Lwów, for which the people of the city erected a monument and a statue with the likeness of Hetman Jabłonowski. In his honor, one of the main streets of the city was renamed to "Hetmańska" – literally meaning Hetman's Avenue. After the death of King John III Sobieski (1696) he was one of the leading candidates for the crown, however due to the intervention of the Russian and Saxon forces, the Elector of Saxony, Augustus II the Strong, was chosen instead.