Henry was the younger of two sons of the Count of Saarbrücken, Simon I, to whose estate Zweibrücken Castle belonged.
In 1198, he concluded a deed of exchange with Abbot Wernher of Hornbach Abbey, in which he acquired the hills of "Gutinberg" and the "Ruprechtisberg".
In the decades that followed, Henry is found variously as a signatory or witness to deeds, for example in 1211 in the confirmation of town rights on the Strasbourg by Emperor Otto.
In his coat of arms Count Henry adopted a lion in recognition of his Saarbrücken origins; however, it was red with a blue tongue on a gold field, as is the case today in the town coat of arms of Zweibrücken.
Their daughter, Agnes, married Count Louis of Saarwerden, and their son, Henry, nicknamed the "Henry the Argumentative" (Heinrich der Streitbare), was his successor as Count of Zweibrücken.